Inspiring Back to School Quotes to Kickstart Your Year

"You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So ... get on your way!"

- Dr. Seuss

"Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

- Ben Franklin

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

- Robert Collier

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

- Albert Einstein

"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world."

- Malala Yousafzai

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

- Malcolm X

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

- W.B. Yeats

"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."

- Mark van Doren

"A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning."

- Brad Henry

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

- Albert Einstein

"One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."

- Malala Yousafzai

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."

- BB King

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

- Albert Pujols

"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin."

- Anthony Robbins

"You’re off to great places. Today is your day!"

- Dr. Seuss

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

- John Dewey

"Dream big and dare to fail."

- Norman Vaughan

"It always seems impossible until it is done."

- Nelson Mandela

"Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you're capable of unless you try."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

- Plato

"If you can't outplay them, outwork them."

- Ben Hogan

"Take pride in how far you've come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don't forget to enjoy the journey."

- Michael Josephson

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

- Mark Twain

"You're off to great places. Today is your day!"

- Dr. Seuss

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

- Nelson Mandela

"Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: We have the power to imagine better."

- J.K. Rowling

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

- Harriet Tubman

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

- E.E. Cummings

"We don't stop going to school when we graduate."

- Carol Burnett

"Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them."

- Russell M. Nelson

"Do. Or do not. There is no try."

- Yoda

"There may be days when you'll say to yourself, 'I can't. I literally can't even.' But you can! You can even!"

- Katie Couric

"Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."

- George Burns

"Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change."

- Shonda Rhimes

"I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Be the hardest working person you know. Because if you're not, someone else will be."

- Ian Brennan

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with—a man is what he makes himself."

- Alexander Graham Bell

"The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not graduation day."

- Harry Wong

"You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

"Intelligence plus character — that is the true goal of education."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."

- Albert Einstein

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world."

- Robin Williams

"Think about every problem, every challenge we face. The solution starts with education."

- George H.W. Bush

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

- Aristotle

"Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another."

- G.K. Chesterton

"The more that you read, the more things you know, the more learn, the more places you’ll go."

- Dr. Seuss

"The road to freedom — here and everywhere on earth — begins in the classroom."

- Hubert Humphrey

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader."

- Margaret Fuller

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

- A.A. Milne

"Knowledge — that is, education in its true sense — is our best protection against unreasoning prejudice and panic-making fear."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I’ve always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings."

- Jenny Han

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."

- Alexander Graham Bell

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Lao Tzu

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

- W.B. Yeats

"School bells are ringing, loud and clear; Vacation’s over, school is here."

- Winifred C. Marshall

"Be the best of whatever you are."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and be told, ‘I am with you kid. Let’s go!’"

- Maya Angelou

"If you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!"

- Dr. Seuss

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

- Mark Twain

"What we learn with pleasure we never forget."

- Alfred Mercier

"Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen."

- Sukhraj S. Dhillon

"There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks."

- Albert Einstein

"Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best."

- Bob Talbert

"In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn."

- Phil Collins

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

- Helen Keller

"Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can."

- Douglas Pagels

"The beginning is always today."

- Mary Shelley

"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere."

- Joyce Meyer

"Everything is hard before it is easy."

- Goethe

"Information may be free, an education is priceless."

- Marie Forleo

"Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody."

- Jane Austen

"There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others."

- Michelle Obama

"School bells are ringing loud and clear; vacation’s over, school is here."

- Winifred C. Marshall

"You can never be overdressed or overeducated."

- Oscar Wilde

"Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open."

- James Dewar

"In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson."

- Tom Bodett

"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action."

- Herbert Spencer

"You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d think you do. You build by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities."

- Barbara Bush

"School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside."

- Lon Watters

"You can learn something every day if you pay attention."

- Ray LeBlond

"Our goal must be decency and respect for every human we encounter."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Education doesn’t make us smarter. It makes us whole."

- Jill Biden

"The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth."

- Dan Rather

"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."

- Margaret Mead

"Being fearless isn’t being 100% not fearful, it’s being terrified but you jump anyway."

- Taylor Swift

"Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different styles."

- R.L. Stine

"There’s more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island."

- Walt Disney

"There is no single recipe for success. But there is one essential ingredient: passion."

- Martha Stewart

"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice."

- Brian Herbert

"The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music."

- Gerald Ford

"Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them."

- Josie Bissett

"Our greatest natural resource is in the minds of our children."

- Walt Disney

"Encourage kids to be creative without worrying about being perfect."

- Dave Pilkey

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework."

- Lily Tomlin

"Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you."

- John Green

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Nothing prevents boredom like a good book."

- Dave Pilkey

"The most important thing we learn at school is that the most important things can't be learned at school."

- Haruki Murakami

"It is always better to ask a question than to answer one."

- Lemony Snicket

"Be true to your school now, just like you would to your girl or guy. Be true to your school now and let your colors fly."

- The Beach Boys

"If you think your teachers are tough, wait 'til you get a boss."

- Bill Gates

"Our passion is and always should be to make life better."

- Martha Stewart

"No one is perfect. That’s why pencils have erasers."

- Wolfgang Riebe

"We all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school."

- Peter de Vries

"Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead."

"The influence of a good teacher can never be erased."