The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.
—Marva Collins (1936–2015) American Educator
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
Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian Physician, Educator
Teaching isn’t one-tenth as effective as training.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
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
First he wrought, and afterward he taught.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
Never offer to teach a fish to swim.
—Common Proverb
Those who know how to think need no teachers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.
—Latin 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
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
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
A gifted teacher is as rare as a gifted doctor, and makes far less money.
—Unknown
During the Middle Ages Europe was far too much influenced by celibate men. Today much too big a part in public life is played by celibate women, and too little by mothers. I find no new ideas more genuinely disgusting than that held by many educated authorities that a woman ceases to be suitable as a teacher when she becomes a mother.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
You can’t teach a hunter it’s wrong to kill.
—Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) Indian-American Yogi, Hindu Monk
We learn by teaching.
—Common Proverb
Whatever you would have your children become, strive to exhibit in your own lives and conversation.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
You teach best what you most need to learn.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
He who does not research has nothing to teach.
—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 teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
I swear… to hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
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
Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change.Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician