Quotes about teacher

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

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

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

— Aristotle

My object will be, if possible, to form Christian men, for Christian boys I can scarcely hope to make.

— Thomas Arnold

A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.

— W. H. Auden

You can't teach a hunter it's wrong to kill.

— Hari Dass Baba

You teach best what you most need to learn.

— Richard Bach

A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.

— Walter Bagehot

I believe that every human soul is teaching something to someone nearly every minute here in mortality.

— M. Russell Ballard

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

— Jacques Barzun

Unless we do his teachings, we do not demonstrate faith in him.

— Ezra Taft Benson

The schoolmaster is abroad! And I trust to him armed with his primer against the soldier in full military array.

— Jeremy Bentham

Life is amazing: and the teacher had better prepare himself to be a medium for that amazement.

— Edward Blishen

There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.

— Allan Bloom

The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn.

— Bertolt Brecht

Housework is a breeze. Cooking is a pleasant diversion. Putting up a retaining wall is a lark. But teaching is like climbing a mountain.

— Fawn M. Brodie

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.

— Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Arrogance, pedantry, and dogmatism... the occupational diseases of those who spend their lives directing the intellects of the young.

— Henry S. Canby

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.

— Thomas Carruthers

First he wrought, and afterward he taught.

— Geoffrey Chaucer

A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

— Confucius

Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.

— William Cowper

A wisely chosen illustration is almost essential to fasten the truth upon the ordinary mind, and no teacher can afford to neglect this part of his preparation.

— Howard Crosby

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

— Dalai Lama

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

— John Cotton Dana

There is no human reason why a child should not admire and emulate his teacher's ability to do sums, rather than the village bum's ability to whittle sticks and smoke cigarettes. The reason why the child does not is plain enough -- the bum has put himself on an equality with him and the teacher has not.

— Floyd Dell

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.

— Mark Van Doren

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

— William J. Durant

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

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

— Albert Einstein

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge exists to be imparted.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We love the precepts for the teacher's sake.

— George Farquhar

I am not a teacher, but an awakener.

— Robert Frost

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.

— Galileo Galilei

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

— Mahatma Gandhi

The teacher gives not of his wisdom, but rather of his faith and lovingness.

— Kahlil Gibran

Those who go to college and never get out are called professors.

— George Givot

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

— Gail Godwin

Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

— Sidney J. Harris

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

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

— Horace

The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before.

— Elbert Hubbard

Morality sticks faster when presented in brief sayings than when presented in long discourse.

— Immermann

To teach is to learn twice.

— Joseph Joubert

To teach successfully we must tell all we know, but only what is adaptable to the student.

— Frederic-Cesar La Harpe

Why are we never quite at ease in the presence of a schoolmaster? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in ours. He is awkward, and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes like Gulliver from among his little people, and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.

— Charles Lamb

A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.

— Georg C. Lichtenberg

Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be re-taught when the students become teachers.

— Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.

— John Locke

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

— Sir John Lubbock

Teaching is of more importance than urging.

— Martin Luther

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on a cold iron.

— Horace Mann

Teaching isn't one-tenth as effective as training.

— Horace Mann

What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that of teaching?

— Harriet Martineau

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

The truth is that the average schoolmaster, on all the lower levels, is and always must be essentially and next door to an idiot, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation?

— H. L. Mencken

In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

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

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

— Plato

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

To teach well, we need not say all that we know, Successful teachers are effective in spite of the psychological theories they suffer under.

— Proverb

Never offer to teach a fish to swim.

— Proverb

In teaching others we teach ourselves.

— Proverb

He who does not research has nothing to teach.

— Proverb

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.

— Proverb

He who undertakes to be his own teacher has a fool for a pupil.

— German Proverb

The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds.

— Frederick W. Robertson

We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit.

— Robert H. Shaffer

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.

— George Bernard Shaw

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

— George Bernard Shaw

When teaching, light a fire, don't fill a bucket.

— Dan Snow

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

— Socrates

Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions.

— Laurence Sterne

Children should be led into the right paths, not by severity, but by persuasion.

— Terence

To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler and less trouble.

— Mark Twain

We will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.

— Source Unknown

A gifted teacher is as rare as a gifted doctor, and makes far less money.

— Source Unknown

The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning.

— Source Unknown

The highest function of the teacher consists not so much in imparting knowledge as in stimulating the pupil in its love and pursuit.

— Source Unknown

He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

— Source Unknown

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

— William A. Ward

Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.

— Colleen Wilcox

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

— Oscar Wilde

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

— Oscar Wilde

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

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader… Teach him for every enemy there is a friend, Steer him away from envy, if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick… Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books… But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside. In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat… Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong… Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon… Teach him to listen to all men… but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through. Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad… Teach him there is no shame in tears, Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness… Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he’s right. Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient… let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind. This is a big order, but see what you can do… He is such a fine little fellow, my son!

— Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Letter to his Son’s Teacher He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader… Teach him for every enemy there is a friend, Steer him away from envy, if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick… Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books… But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside. In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat… Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong… Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon… Teach him to listen to all men… but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through. Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad… Teach him there is no shame in tears, Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness… Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he’s right. Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient… let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind. This is a big order, but see what you can do… He is such a fine little fellow, my son!

— Abraham Lincoln

Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.

— Japanese Proverb

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

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

— Henry Brooks Adams