80 Teacher’s Day Quotes That Try to Express How Important They Are to Us

Teachers are amazing role models, and these Teacher’s Day quotes will help you the words to tell them how much they mean to you!

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Share some stories about your favorite teacher with us in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these Teacher’s Day quotes?

These Teacher’s Day quotes will help you find the:

• Perfect thing to say in a card for your teacher on Teacher’s Day
• Right words to express the impact they have on your life
• Thank your child’s teacher for the work they do everyday

These Teacher’s Day quotes are a great place to start if you are trying to find the perfect message for a special teacher in your life.

Teachers have had an especially rough time during the pandemic, but they rose to the occasion like the heroes they are.

These quotes will help you tell your teacher about the impact they had on your life.

My favorite teacher

Mrs. Hawk, my English teacher in high school (for like three years because she kept switching what grade she taught), shaped who I became as an adult.

I had a traumatic childhood, and she was the mother I wished I had.

Sadly, far too many kids in this world feel more love from their teachers than they do from their parents.

Teachers know this, and they step up to fill the void.

Mrs. Hawk and I spoke about writing, literature, friends, and even the boy I had a crush on.

She was there to help me be a better writer and hugged me when I cried tears of unrequited love.

I’m dedicating these Teacher’s Day quotes to her.

What special teacher will you thank on May 4?

Don’t forget to check out these teaching quotes all educators need to hear.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

Browse our entire collection of inspirational quotes for more motivating ideas and concepts.

Happy Teachers Day Quotes

1. “Thank you for guiding us in every chapter of life. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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2. “You deserve extra marks for being a great human first. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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3. “Because you have made me learn to take that first step. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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4. “You made learning fun! Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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5. “You are like water to my sapling. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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6. “You gave the sense of color and I color the lives of others through my paintings. Happy Teacher’s Day to my Art Teacher.” ― Unknown

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7. “Thank you for all the life lessons. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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8. “Music has made me rise and shine as a singer, mainly because you taught me the right notes. Happy Teacher’s Day to my Music Teacher.” ― Unknown

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9. “To the one who always corrects you when you’re wrong. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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10. “The stars I got in class helped me through hard times. Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

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11. “Today I am building houses because of the elements of force that you literally forced me to study! Happy Teacher’s Day to my Physics Teacher.” ― Unknown

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12. “All the efforts and hard work you’ve invested to bring out the best in us can never be repaid in mere words. We can only feel grateful for having a teacher like you! Happy Teacher’s Day.” ― Unknown

13. “You taught us like a teacher, protected us like our parents, and guided us like a mentor. You truly deserve this day so much. Happy teachers’ day to my most beloved teacher!”― Unknown

14. “You have a very special power of inspiring young people like me. We need more teachers like you in our schools and colleges. Happy teachers’ day to you!” ― Unknown

15. “Dear Teacher, I would not be where I am in life right now, had it not been for your guidance and wisdom. I owe you all of my success. Thank you! And a Happy Teachers’ Day!” ― Unknown

16. “Teachers have to lead by example, and you have always been an excellent example to follow. As a student, I feel very grateful to have such a great mentor in my life. Happy Teachers’ Day!” ― Unknown

Teacher’s Day quotes and inspirational words of thanks

17. “Your best teacher is your last mistake.” ― Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

18. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin

19. “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” ― Colleen Wilcox

20. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” ― John Dewey

21. “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” ― Joseph Addison

22. “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” ―Socrates

23. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” ― Confucius (Kong Qui)

24. “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need the motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.” ― Jim Rohn

25. “The main objective of teaching is not to give explanations, but to knock at the doors of the mind.” ― Rabindranath Tagore

26. “Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.” ― Chinese Proverb

27. “A teacher’s purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.” ― Unknown

Teacher’s Day quotes and sayings to remind us how important our educators are

28. “Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher that will be the biggest honor for me.” ― A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

29. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression & knowledge.” ― Albert Einstein

30. “I have always felt that the true textbook for the pupil is his teacher.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

31. “Teachers are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.” ― Helen Caldicott

32. “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” ― Bill Gates

33. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela

34. “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.” ― Barack Obama

35. “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.” ― Dan Rather

36. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” ― Henry Brooks Adams

37. “One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen.” ― Philip Wylie

38. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.”― Solomon Ortiz

Good quotes for Teachers Day

39. “The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves.” ― Dr. Sarvepali Radhakrishnan

40. “Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis

41. “Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.” ― Charles Kuralt

42. “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” ― Kahlil Gibran

43. “The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.” ― Alexandra K. Trenfor

44. “The Master said, A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.” ― Confucius

45. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward

46. “The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.” ― Unknown

47. “A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others.” ― Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

48. “The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.” ―Maria Montessori

49. “The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.” ― Unknown

50. “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” ― Brad Henry

Appreciative Teacher’s Day quotes

51. “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” –Carl Jung

52. “Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.” –Joyce Meyer

53. “The influence of teachers extends beyond the classroom, well into the future.”  -F. Sionil Jose

54. “Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” –Sidney Hook

55. “Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.” –Andy Rooney

56. “Good teachers make the best of a pupil’s means; great teachers foresee a pupil’s ends.” –Maria Callas

57. “Teachers need to feel they are trusted. They must be allowed some leeway to use their imagination; otherwise, teaching loses all sense of wonder and excitement.” –Alan Bennett

58. “Wonderful teachers should never let themselves be drill sergeants for the state.” –Jonathan Kozol

59. “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” –Mark Van Doren

60. “Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.” –Rita Pierson

Teachers Day Quotes To Appreciate Them For Their Patience

61. “The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton

62. “Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” — John Steinbeck

63. “When you study great teachers… you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” — William Glasser

64. “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” — Alexander the Great

65. “A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience’s attention, then he can teach his lesson.” — John Henrik Clarke

66. “Teaching seems to me beyond doubt the greatest of the professions.” — Theodore Burghard Hurt Brameld

67. “In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.” — Jacques Barzun

68. “There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.” — Robert Frost

69. “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” — Anatole France

70. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” — Lily Tomlin

Funny Teacher’s Day Quotes To Make Teachers Smile

71. “Being a new teacher is like trying to fly an airplane while building it.” — Rick Smith

72. “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” — Bob Talbert

73. “Sunday is a teacher’s day of rest: the rest of the laundry, the rest of the housework, and grade the rest of the papers.” — Heidi McDonald

74. “A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.” — Thomas Carruthers

75. “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” — Aristotle

76. “Of all the hard jobs around, one of the hardest is being a good teacher.” — Maggie Gallagher

77. “Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.” — Sidney J. Harris

78. “Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon.” — Ann Liberman

79. “In learning, you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn.” — Phil Collins

80. “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.” — Michael Morpurgo

Teachers Day Quotes To Appreciate Their Work

81. “A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.” — Darwin D. Martin

82. “A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.” — Ever Garrison

83. “The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate ‘apparently ordinary’ people to unusual effort.” — K. Patricia Cross

84. “A good teacher is like the rising sun that comes to fill the empty and dark minds with the light of the education” ― Anamika Mishra

85. “A great teacher’s mind will be young forever, he is a life long learner — Happy Teacher’s Day” ― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

86. “No word can express the effort, dedication and sacrifices a teacher put into teaching. Happy teachers day Sir with immense respect and gratitude!” ― Atlas Gondal

87. “You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.” ― J.D. Salinger

88. “The great teacher is not the man who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

89. “A good teacher is the one who makes you realize that you don’t need one!” ― Nitya Prakash

90. “Better Than A Thousand Days Of Diligent Study Is One Day With A Great Teacher…” ― Nitya Prakash

Which of these Teacher’s Day quotes and sayings resonated with you best?

Students come to teachers with different backgrounds, lifestyles, and ambitions, and they meet them on their level.

However, those special teachers can change a student’s world.

My son didn’t enjoy school from the moment he entered kindergarten.

His teachers were kind and tried to be helpful, but they never really bonded.

I would tell them how he was bored and being a 6, 7, or 8-year-old boy, it was hard to get him to sit as still and follow the rules they wanted him to.

I always had their backs and made sure my son knew what they expected of him.

But I worried about how school would look for him in the future.

Then he met his third-grade teacher, Mr. Richmond.

Mr. Richmond was his first male teacher, and they seemed to truly understand one another.

Suddenly, my son started saying things like, “I want to be a teacher when I grow up.”

Mr. Richmond kept him busy and challenged him academically.

In the fifth grade, they awarded my son the “Be the change,” award.

Because of the pandemic, the principal, his teacher, and counselor drove to our house to deliver it in person.

The principal, Mr. Niemeyer, whose office I was in nearly every day when we first moved here, always believed in my son and tried to foster as many opportunities for him as he could.

Now, my son is in middle school.

He is a straight-A student and gets excited when he co-hosts zooms.

He loves all his teachers and no longer cries about how much he hates school.

Thank you, Mr. Richmond and Mr. Niemeyer!

Which of these Teacher’s Day quotes and sayings is your favorite?

Share your stories about the amazing teachers in your life, and leave them a shout-out of thanks in the comment section below.