Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.
—Japanese Proverb
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
—Mark Van Doren (1894–1972) American Poet, Writer, Critic
I am a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. I do not walk on water, I do not part the sea. I just love children.
—Marva Collins (b.1936) American Educator
What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honourable, than that of teaching?
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than even their parents, for these only give them life, those the art of living well.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Whatever you teach, be brief; what is quickly said the mind readily receives and faithfully retains, while everything superfluous runs over as from a full container. Who knows much says least.
—Common Proverb
Unless we do his teachings, we do not demonstrate faith in him.
—Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) American Mormon Religious Leader
A high-school teacher, after all, is a person deputized by the rest of us to explain to the young what sort of world they are living in, and to defend, if possible, the part their elders are playing in it.
—Emile Capouya (1925–2005) American Essayist, Critic, Publisher
You don’t have to be a “person of influence” to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.
—Scott Adams (b.1957) American Cartoonist
Your Master Teacher knows all you need to learn, the perfect timing for your learning it, and the ideal way of teaching it to you. You don’t create a Master Teacher—that’s already been done. You discover your Master Teacher.
—Peter McWilliams (1949–2000) American Author, Activist
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
A teacher’s purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.
—Indian Proverb
No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
—Patricia Neal (1926–2010) American Stage, Movie Actress
The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
—Thomas N. Carruthers
A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.
—Unknown
Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be re-taught when the students become teachers.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Knowledge exists to be imparted.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The first duty of a lecturer is to hand you after an hour’s discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantelpiece forever.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
We love the precepts for the teacher’s sake.
—George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish Dramatist
What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
A preacher should have the skill to teach the unlearned simply, roundly, and plainly; for teaching is of more importance than exhorting.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It IS education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching. There are no uneducated people; only most people are educated wrong. The true task of culture today is not a task of expansion, but of selection-and rejection. The educationist must find a creed and teach it.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Once more I would adopt the graver style—a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
To teach well, we need not say all that we know, Successful teachers are effective in spite of the psychological theories they suffer under.
—Common Proverb
All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of mastery of details, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In teaching others we teach ourselves.
—Common Proverb
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. 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 Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Don’t try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed.
—Marva Collins (b.1936) American Educator
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
—Gail Godwin (b.1937) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.
—Indian Proverb
A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Never offer to teach a fish to swim.
—Common Proverb
The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A gifted teacher is as rare as a gifted doctor, and makes far less money.
—Unknown
He who does not research has nothing to teach.
—Common Proverb
To teach is to learn twice.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The highest function of the teacher consists not so much in imparting knowledge as in stimulating the pupil in its love and pursuit.
—Unknown
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.
—Randy Pausch (1960–2008) American Computer Scientist