100+ Inspirational Quotes for Preschoolers to Spark Joy and Confidence

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- A.A. Milne

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy."

- Norman Vincent Peale

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can."

- Nikos Kazantzakis

"Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle."

- Christian D. Larson

"You are enough just as you are."

- Meghan Markle

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

- Dr. Seuss

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

- Dr. Seuss

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Oliver Goldsmith

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

- A.A. Milne

"It’s not so much what children learn through play, but what they won’t learn if we don’t give them the chance to play. Many functional skills like literacy and arithmetic can be learned either through play or through instruction – the issue is the amount of stress on the child. However, many coping skills like compassion, self-regulation, self-confidence, the habit of active engagement, and the motivation to learn and be literate cannot be instructed. They can only be learned through self-directed experience (i.e. play)."

- Susan J. Oliver

"Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there."

- Gale Sayers

"Either we spend time meeting children’s emotional needs by filling their cup with love, or we spend time dealing with behaviors caused from their unmet needs. Either way, we spend the time."

- Pam Leo

"I’m more interested in arousing enthusiasm in kids than in teaching the facts. The facts may change, but that enthusiasm for exploring the world will remain with them the rest of their lives."

- Seymour Simon

"Everything we do as teachers must ensure that the child’s inherent desire to learn is kept alive."

- Robert John Meehan

"Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren't afraid to fail, you probably wouldn't be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work at to do well."

- Ruth Simmons

"Learning can’t happen by accident; it needs zealous pursuit and constant upkeep."

- Malcolm Forbes

"It is not what is poured into a student, but what is planted."

- Linda Conway

"True play is child-initiated and child-directed. It can occur on a blank playground. It can occur with a few tires. Children can play – and do play – when all they are given is space and time."

- Heather Shumaker

"Remind yourself daily: While education is useful, it’s love that children and the world need. A deeply loved child with only some education will go much further than a well educated child lacking love."

- Vince Gowmon

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

- Albert Einstein

"Learning cannot be acquired by accident; it requires ardent pursuit and diligent maintenance."

- Abigail Adams

"You are the hero of your own story."

- Joseph Campbell

"You have what it takes to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"Education is not about filling a pail, but about starting a fire."

- William Butler Yeats

"You are capable of making a difference in the world."

- Malala Yousafzai

"It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them."

- Leo Buscaglia

"Self-belief is the first secret to success."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Trust children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted."

- John Holt

"Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."

- Norman Vincent Peale

"The more you read, the more knowledge you will acquire. The more you know, the farther you’ll get."

- Dr. Seuss

"Do not train children to learn by force and 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

"Your success will largely depend on your belief in yourself and your determination to overcome every obstacle."

- John Di Lemme

"The best education does not happen at a desk, but rather engaged in everyday living – hands on, exploring, in active relationship with life."

- Vince Gowmon

"Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn."

- Alice Miller

"Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change."

- Jim Rohn

"Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life."

- Les Brown

"Dare to listen to your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you aspire to be."

- Steve Jobs

"Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time, and energy needed to develop yourself."

- Denis Waitley

"If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns"

- Rita Dunn

"Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem. To raise problem solvers, focus on solutions, not retribution."

- L.R. Knost

"Give children toys that are powered by their imagination, not by batteries."

- H. Jackson Brown

"When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments – tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become."

- Louis Pasteur

"If we want children to become creative leaders then we must learn to follow their lead at an early age."

- Vince Gowmon

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau

"I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized."

- Haim G. Ginott

"What we are teaches the child far more than what we say, so we must be what we want our children to become."

- Joseph Chilton Pearce

"It is vital that when educating our children’s brains we do not neglect to educate their hearts."

- Dalai Lama

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."

- Benjamin Franklin

"The best way to preserve a child’s vision is to let them see things their way rather than yours."

- Jacob Liberman

"We have forgotten that children are designed by nature to learn through self-directed play and exploration, and so, more and more, we deprive them of freedom to learn."

- Peter O. Gray

"This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop."

- Maria Montessori

"The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility—these three forces are the very nerve of education."

- Rudolf Steiner

"Children learn and listen more willingly when they are met with kindness, empathy and patience; when their core need for connection or attachment is met."

- Vince Gowmon

"Dreams don't work unless you do."

- John C. Maxwell

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

- Winston Churchill

"Movement is the door to learning."

- Paul E. Dennison

"Children understand and remember concepts best when they learn from direct personal experience."

- Joseph Cornell

"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."

- Maya Angelou

"Rushing children’s development is a formula for turning them into who they are not. Letting them play is a kind means of meeting them where they are and encouraging their authentic unfolding."

- Vince Gowmon

"Growing up and becoming who you are takes courage."

- E.E. Cummings

"What is essential is to realize that children learn independently, not in bunches; that they learn out of interest and curiosity, not to please or appease the adults in power; and that they ought to be in control of their own learning, deciding for themselves what they want to learn and how they want to learn it."

- John Holt

"The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."

- Peggy O’Mara

"When we deny children play, we are denying them the right to understand the world."

- Erika & Nicholas Christakis

"Trust your head, but don't be afraid to follow your heart."

- Alice in Wonderland

"I cherish the occasions when my daughter manages to do something for the first time, or does something better than she’s ever done it before. But I try to resist the knee-jerk tendency to say, ‘Good job!’ because I don’t want to dilute her joy. I want her to share her pleasure with me, not look to me for a verdict. I want her to exclaim, ‘I did it!’ (which she often does) instead of asking me uncertainly, ‘Was that good?’"

- Alfie Kohn

"So much developmental trauma can be avoided if we simply give children the right to exercise their natural right to play, to move, to explore the outdoors unsupervised… if we let children be children!"

- Vince Gowmon

"The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

- Michelle Obama

"Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make."

- Paul Berg

"Children’s emotions are as real as yours. Just because they might get sad over the colour of their cup, does not make their feelings any less real."

- Rebekah Lipp

"Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with tenderness and respect, as equals."

- Janusz Korczak

"Personal growth is not a destination, it's a journey."

- Zig Ziglar

"Walking from failure to failure with enthusiasm is what defines success."

- Winston Churchill

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

"Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree."

- Marian Wright Edelman

"Don’t educate a child to become something or someone, educate to help them explore and celebrate who they already are."

- Vince Gowmon

"There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children."

- Kofi Annan

"Our only limitation in realizing tomorrow will be our current doubts."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero."

- Fred Rogers

"The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn."

- Maria Montessori

"The key to success is often the ability to adapt."

- Anthony Brandt

"It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless."

- L.R. Knost

"Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold."

- Joseph Chilton Pearce

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Teaching is learning. They are inseparable. The humility of a teacher is born when this is realized. Only then does teaching really begin."

- Vince Gowmon

"A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it."

- Frank A. Clark

"Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions."

- Alfie Kohn

"We keep thinking as adults that we need to control the way they do things. I wish we’d get out of that. They know how to play, they know how to structure their own play – they need that time to grow responsibly."

- Debbie Rhea

"The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six."

- Maria Montessori

"Children come into the world exquisitely designed, and strongly motivated, to educate themselves. They don’t need to be forced to learn; in fact, coercion undermines their natural desire to learn."

- Peter Gray

"Children learn more from what you are than what you teach."

- W.E.B. Du Bois

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

- Albert Einstein

"The greatest investment you can make is in yourself."

- Warren Buffett

"The real magic wand is the child’s own mind."

- Jose Ortega y Gasset

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

- Pablo Picasso

"It is not intellect but rather imagination that is the source of creativity. What if imagination was nurtured as much if not more in school?"

- Vince Gowmon

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'."

- Audrey Hepburn

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The ultimate gift we can give the world is to grow our tiny humans into adult humans who are independent thinkers, compassionate doers, conscious questioners, radical innovators, and passionate peacemakers. Our world doesn’t need more adults who blindly serve the powerful because they’ve been trained to obey authority without question. Our world needs more adults who challenge and question and hold the powerful accountable."

- L.R. Knost

"If it hasn’t been in the hand and body, it can’t be in the brain."

- Bev Bos

"If we want children to play BIG in the world, then let’s let them play in small ways to start."

- Vince Gowmon

"Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better."

- Magda Gerber

"A ‘naughty child’ doesn’t exist—a child who acts out is simply a child with unmet needs."

- Birgitte Coste

"Movement isn’t a break from learning; movement is learning, and the opportunities for thoughtful exploration in the classroom are endless."

- Aleta Margolis

"Teach children what to think and you limit them to your ideas. Teach children how to think and their ideas are unlimited."

- Sandra Parks

"A child learns when time. Some want to read at age three and some don’t care until age eight. There is no right or wrong way, no best timeline. If a child shows no interest in reading or math, it’s because he or she has something far more important to explore."

- Vince Gowmon

"Our fate lives within us; you only have to be brave enough to see it."

- Merida

"Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star."

- W. Clement Stone

"Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do."

- John Wooden

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails."

- Thomas S. Monson

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

- Albert Einstein

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."

- Gail Sheehy

"I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are."

- Mewtwo

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Don’t let what you can’t do keep you from doing what you can."

- John Wooden

"Never doubt yourself, it will only hold you back."

- J.M. Barrie

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

- Roald Dahl

"Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world."

- Roald Dahl, Matilda

"Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."

- Dalai Lama

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

- B.B. King

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

- James Joyce

"You can’t focus on what’s going wrong. There’s always a way to turn things around."

- Joy

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

- Albert Einstein

"You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over."

- Richard Branson

"Don't fear failure. Be afraid of not having the chance, you have the chance!"

- Sally Carrera

"It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become."

- Dr Suess

"Being different isn’t a bad thing. It means you’re brave enough to be yourself."

- Luna Lovegood

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

- Henry Ford

"The time is always right to do what is right."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

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

- E.E. Cummings

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming."

- Dory

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

- Dr. Seuss

"Education is the ticket to the future because those who prepare for it today will own it in the future."

- Malcolm X

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change."

- Charles Darwin

"Education never comes to an end. You don’t just finish your education by finishing a book, getting a passing grade on an exam, etc. From the time you are born until the time you pass away, your entire life is a learning process."

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

- Albert Einstein

"Believe you can, and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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

- John Dewey

"Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded."

- Jess Lair

"The word ‘education’ comes from the Latin ‘educere’ = e- (out of) + -ducere (to draw). Education is not just about putting information in. We have forgotten that it, in fact, begins in the child’s heart."

- Vince Gowmon

"By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man; body, mind and spirit."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."

- Stacia Tauscher

"Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are."

- Jim Henson

"Teaching is not about answering questions but about raising questions – opening doors for them in places that they could not imagine."

- Yawar Baig

"A child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him."

- Casals

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults."

- F. Douglas

"To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making."

- Alfie Kohn

"Every day, in a 100 small ways, our children ask, ‘Do you hear me? Do you see me? Do I matter?’ Their behavior often reflects our response."

- L.R. Knost

"A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires."

- Paulo Coelho

"You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen."

- Vince Gowmon

"Love is the supreme form of communication. In the hierarchy of needs, love stands as the supreme developing agent of the humanity of the person. As such, the teaching of love should be the central core of all early childhood curriculum with all other subjects growing naturally out of such teaching."

- Ashley Montagu

"Remember: everyone in the classroom has a story that leads to misbehavior or defiance. 9 times out of 10, the story behind the misbehavior won’t make you angry. It will break your heart."

- Annette Breaux

"The greatest achievement is to be able to be who you are in a world that is constantly trying to mold you into someone else."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment."

- Maria Montessori

"If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow."

- Alfie Kohn

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

- W.B. Yeats

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

- Albert Einstein

"Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves."

- Jean Piaget

"Encouraging a child means that one or more of the following critical life messages are coming through, either by word or by action: I believe in you, I trust you, I know you can handle this, You are listened to, You are cared for, You are very important to me."

- Barbara Coloroso

"If you trust play, you will not have to control your child’s development as much. Play will raise the child in ways you can never imagine."

- Vince Gowmon

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

- Oscar Wilde

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!"

- Dr. Seuss

"Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play."

- Magda Gerber

"Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn."

- O. Fred Donaldson

"Since the jobs that our preschoolers will do probably don’t exist yet, our priority is to teach them the skills to adapt and inquire and question and cooperate…life skills. So much more useful than rigid concepts such as the alphabet."

- Caroline Bellouse

"The greatest gift you can give someone is your personal development."

- Jim Rohn

"Play is the shortest route between children and their creative calling."

- Vince Gowmon

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."

- Chinese proverb

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

- Sun Tzu

"The more risks you allow your children to make, the better they learn to look after themselves."

- Roald Dahl

"Putting your students’ emotional needs first is important because without feeling safe and understood, no instructional strategy will be effective."

- Jasper Fox, Sr.

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right."

- Henry Ford

"Be sure that in your educating you are not manufacturing obedient citizens, but rather unleashing powerful, creative souls."

- Vince Gowmon

"For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does ‘just for fun’ and things that are ‘educational.’ The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play."

- Penelope Leach

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."

- Mother Teresa

"If you can dream it you can do it."

- Mickey Mouse

"Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world."

- Lois Lowry

"Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together."

- Scott Hayden

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Children more than ever, need opportunities to be in their bodies in the world – jumping rope, bicycling, stream hopping, and fort building. It’s this engagement between limbs of the body and bones of the earth where true balance and centeredness emerge."

- David Sobel

"Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter."

- Dan Reeves

"I believe that to teach them effectively you must touch their hearts long before you begin to teach their minds"

- Vicki Savini

"I keep trying to convey the pleasure every parent and teacher could feel while observing, appreciating and enjoying what the infant is doing. This attitude would change our educational climate from worry to joy. Can anybody argue about the benefits for a child who is appreciated and enjoyed for what she can do and does naturally? …I believe this issue is so basic, so important, that it cannot be overstated."

- Magda Gerber

"If we love our children and want them to thrive, we must allow them more time and opportunity to play, not less. Yet policymakers and powerful philanthropists are continuing to push us in the opposite direction — toward more schooling, more testing, more adult direction of children, and less opportunity for free play."

- Dr. Peter Gray

"Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t."

- Rikki Rogers

"When we give children advice or instant solutions, we deprive them of the experience that comes from wrestling with their own problems."

- Adele Faber

"Too much leading and we create anxiety for children. Too much following and the same is true. In wisdom we find balance between the two."

- Vince Gowmon

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul."

- Friedrich Froebel

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life."

- J.K. Rowling

"When our little people are overwhelmed by big emotions it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos."

- L.R. Knost

"So often children are punished for being human. Children are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes. Yet, us adults have them all the time. None of us are perfect. We must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves."

- Rebecca Eanes

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

- Helen Keller

"No one ever tried anything new if they never made a mistake."

- Albert Einstein

"Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive."

- Jean Chatzky

"True education aims to develop both intelligence and character."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"While it is important to educate children, what is much more pressing is the need to love them. When education becomes more important than love, it is no longer education at all. For, tending to the delicate spirit of children is foundational if education is to fulfill its intended purpose of serving the greater whole."

- Vince Gowmon

"The best investment you can make is in yourself."

- Warren Buffett

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

- Albert Einstein

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Believe in yourself, not only in swimming but in life itself; you must always have fun and keep an open mind; if you’re not enjoying it, don’t do it; life is too short."

- Debbie Meyer

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."

- Walt Disney

"Today you are You, and there is no one alive who is Youer than You."

- Dr. Seuss

"Challenges are what make life interesting, and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible.'"

- Audrey Hepburn

"The future rewards those who press on."

- Barack Obama

"There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope."

- Stephen Hawking

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."

- Japanese Proverb

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

- Nelson Mandela

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid."

- Col. David Hackworth

"Follow your heart and intuition with courage. They somehow know what you aspire to be."

- Steve Jobs

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

- Oscar Wilde

"Believe in yourself and your abilities. Recognize that something greater than any obstacle exists within you."

- Christian D. Larson

"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"You’re braver than you think, stronger than you appear, and smarter than you realize."

- A.A. Milne

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

- Walt Disney

"A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence."

- Jim Watkins

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

- Benjamin Franklin

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

- Nelson Mandela

"The only way to grow is to challenge yourself."

- Ashley Tisdale

"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor."

- Elon Musk

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

- Zig Ziglar

"A setback is a setup for a comeback."

- T.D. Jakes

"The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible."

- Charles Kingsleigh

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

- Thomas Paine

"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."

- Molière

"When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you. They're sent to promote, increase and strengthen you."

- Joel Osteen

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one."

- Elbert Hubbard

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

- Zig Ziglar

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything."

- John Wooden

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

- Gary Player

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people."

- Steve Jobs

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

- Ken Blanchard

"Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there."

- Virginia Burden

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

- African Proverb

"We are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we respect, trust, and care for each other."

- Vala Afshar

"The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Everything you can imagine is real."

- Pablo Picasso

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them."

- Ann Landers

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

- Tim Notke

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."

- Pele

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

- Vince Lombardi

"Being brave means knowing something is scary, difficult, or dangerous and doing it anyway."

- Mandy Davis

"Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts."

- Albert Einstein

"I discovered that courage was the triumph over fear, not the absence of it."

- Nelson Mandela

"Courage does not always yell. At times, courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.'"

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Success is not final, and failure is not fatal: what matters is the determination to keep going."

- Winston Churchill

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

- Earl Nightingale

"It makes no difference how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop."

- Confucius

"Each experience in which we truly stop to face fear gives us strength, courage, and confidence."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Why blend in when you were born to stand out?"

- Dr. Seuss

"Fear is the only thing we have to fear."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

- Lucille Ball

"It doesn't matter if thousands of people believe in you, unless you believe in you."

- Maddy Malhotra

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

- Kurt Cobain

"Be silly, be honest, be kind."

- Anonymous

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop

"Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

- Duke Ellington

"Being brave is when you have to do something because you know it is right, but at the same time, you are afraid to do it, because it might hurt or whatever. But you do it anyway."

- Meg Cabot

"The best way out is always through."

- Robert Frost

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."

- Babe Ruth

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

- John A. Shedd

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do."

- Henry Ford

"It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self."

- D.W. Winnicott

"To effectively teach a child one must reach the child in mind-body-heart, not just intellect, not just the linear-left brain we make such a priority."

- Vince Gowmon

"Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements."

- Maria Montessori

"It is not attention that the child is seeking, but love."

- Sigmund Freud

"Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is known, or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds?"

- Jean Piaget

"We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way."

- John Holt

"The more adults turn play into a project, the more it loses its very essence. The gifts derived from play are suffocated by unnecessary structure and hovering, leaving little room for the child to learn, develop and enjoy his or her explorations."

- Vince Gowmon

"When you teach a child something, you take away forever the chance for him to discover it himself."

- John Piaget

"Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play."

- Plato

"Learning is alive when experiential, relevant and joyful. It is all but dead when limited to disassociated rationale and sedentariness."

- Vince Gowmon

"Have faith in yourself and everything you are. Know that something greater than any obstacle exists within you."

- Christian D. Larson

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

- Albert Einstein

"The art of teaching lies in knowing the balance between structure and flow, telling and asking, speaking and silence."

- Vince Gowmon

"Children first realize they can make a difference when parents listen, then respond with sensitivity."

- Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."

- Clay P. Bedford

"Failure is not fatal, and success is not final.: it is the courage to continue those counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Stop trying to turn children into someone they are not. Instead, let them unfold into who no human can imagine them to be."

- Vince Gowmon

"Life is made up of 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it."

- Charles R. Swindoll

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

- Harriet Tubman

"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."

- Kahlil Gibran

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

- John Wooden

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

"You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward."

- Conrad Hall

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

- William James

"Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear."

- George Addair

"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

- Sir Edmund Hillary

"The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do."

- Swati Sharma

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

- Benjamin Spock

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"With confidence, you have won before you have started."

- Marcus Garvey

"Success is measured not by how high you have climbed, but by how you have made a positive difference in the world."

- Roy T. Bennett

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

- Albert Einstein

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Confucius

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."

- Pelé

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."

- Tommy Lasorda

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

- Newt Gingrich

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"If you don't give up on something you truly believe in, you will find a way."

- Roy T. Bennett

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

- Robert Collier

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

- Beverly Sills

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."

- Vidal Sassoon

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."

- Og Mandino

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete."

- Buddha

"Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult of times."

- Allen Klein

"The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison."

- James Cash Penney

"You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company."

- Diane Von Furstenberg

"The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike."

- H. L. Mencken

"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless."

- Jamie Paolinetti

"I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest."

- Venus Williams

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

- Harry S Truman

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened."

- Buddha

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

- Desmond Tutu

"Your image of the child is where teaching begins."

- Loris Malaguzzi

"Wherever there is a human being, there is the opportunity for a kindness."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time."

- Morgan Freeman

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness."

- William Arthur Ward

"Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise."

- Frank Ocean

"When you know better, you do better."

- Maya Angelou

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Don’t believe you have to be like anybody to be somebody."

- Nike

"Dare to dream; then, decide to do."

- Annette White

"Learning is not a spectator sport."

- D. Blocher

"When one teaches, two learn."

- Robert Heinlein

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

- Aristotle

"The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it's possible to achieve the American dream."

- Tommy Hilfiger

"The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it."

- Jordan Belfort

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves."

- Dalai Lama XIV

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud."

- Coco Chanel

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Explain to me again: how come we treat reading and mathematics as more important than learning to get along with one another?"

- Pennie Brownlee

"Classroom management is not about having the right rules… it’s about having the right relationships."

- @SteeleThoughts

"If you want to be happy, tie it to a goal rather than to people or things."

- Albert Einstein

"Life will never be the same because there has never been anyone like you…ever in the world."

- Nancy Tillman

"Deep meaning lies often in childish play."

- Johann Friedrich von Schiller

"Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves."

- Paul Solarz

"I don’t know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving."

- John Green

"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love."

- Mildred B. Vermont

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

- Angela Schwindt

"There is no substitute for hard work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability."

- Patrick Lencioni

"Children dance before they know there is anything that isn’t music."

- William Stafford

"The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Winning doesn't always mean being first. Winning means you're doing better than you've ever done before."

- Bonnie Blair

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see."

- Alexandra K. Trenfor

"The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work."

- Harry Golden

"Hard work opens doors and shows the world that you are serious about being one of those rare - and special - human beings who use the fullness of their talents to do their very best."

- Robin Sharma

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."

- Michelangelo

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."

- Pamela Vaull Starr

"Set your goals, follow your dreams, listen to your heart and don't let anything stand in your way."

- Brandy Johnson

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

- John F. Kennedy

"Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win."

- Max McKeown

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."

- Alan Watts

"The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings."

- Kakuzo Okakura

"Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won't have a title until much later."

- Bob Goff

"Flexibility is the key to stability."

- John Wooden

"Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher."

- Chinese Proverb

"The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists."

- Japanese Proverb

"Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots."

- Victor Hugo

"There is no challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself."

- Michael F. Staley

"The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement."

- Helmut Schmidt

"The only journey is the journey within."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead."

- Morihei Ueshiba

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."

- Émile Coué

"Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together."

- James Cash Penney

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."

- James A. Froude

"The only way that we can grow is if we change."

- C. JoyBell C.

"Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

- John R. Wooden

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

- Thomas Edison

"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."

- Peter Marshall

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."

- Steve Jobs

"Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose."

- G.K. Nielson

"Perfection is boring. Constant improvement is beautiful."

- Misty Copeland

"I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday."

- José N. Harris

"You grow through what you go through."

- Tyrese Gibson

"The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up."

- Dumbo

"It is being honest about my pain that makes me invincible."

- Nayyirah Waheed

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions."

- Ken Blanchard

"We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve."

- Bill Gates

"Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored."

- Tim Fargo

"True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes."

- Daniel Kahneman

"I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better."

- Elon Musk

"It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem."

- Coretta Scott King

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

- Albert Einstein

"Maturity is when you stop blaming others for your problems and take ownership of your own life."

- Brian Tracy

"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul."

- Swami Vivekananda

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

"In union, there is strength."

- Aesop

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."

- Steve Jobs

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

- Michael Jordan

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

- Phil Jackson

"Alone we are smart, together we are brilliant!"

- Steven Anderson

"Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results."

- Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

"Many hands make light work."

- John Heywood

"United we stand, divided we fall."

- Aesop

"Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with."

- Tony Stark

"I continue to believe that if children are given the necessary tools to succeed, they will succeed beyond their wildest dreams!"

- David Vitter

"The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation."

- Ray L. Wilbur

"Children make your life important."

- Erma Bombeck

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

- Confucius

"Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up."

- Jesse Jackson

"You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was."

- Abraham Lincoln

"If it matters to you, you’ll find a way."

- Charlie Gilkey

"The trouble with over-structuring is that it discourages exploration."

- Jay Giedd

"When you are born into a world where you don’t fit in, it’s because you were born to help create a new one."

- Anonymous

"Anything you can teach in an indoor classroom can be taught outdoors, often in ways that are more enjoyable for children."

- Cathy James

"A spirited, unruly student is preferable. It’s much easier to direct passion than to try and inspire it."

- Joan Desmond

"We are raised in a culture that values expertise over exploration."

- Nina Wise

"Our children should be properly introduced to the world in which they live."

- Thomas Berry

"The more you teach / push those things that can be measured, the more kids will grow up feeling like they don’t measure up."

- Vince Gowmon

"If we want our children to move mountains, we first have to let them get out of their chairs."

- Nicolette Sowder

"In this modern world where activity is stressed to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked."

- Margaret Wise Brown

"If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet."

- Linda Darling-Hammond

"With children, it is the joint moments of delight that build the social brain."

- Mariah Moser

"No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship."

- James Comer

"The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do – such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening – are also the best for child development."

- Jerome Singer

"Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

- Rabindranath Tagore

"Children don’t need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear."

- Emma Thompson

"Rather than books and lectures, nature itself is children’s best teacher."

- Coffey

"Close observation of children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists find out about new phenonoma and test new ideas…during this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations."

- Judith Roden

"Children don’t know how to ask for what they don’t know they need. Their asking comes in the form of behaviour."

- Bonnie Harris

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

- Alvin Toffler

"The people who are horrified by the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it have not accepted the very elementary psychological fact that people (all people, of every age) remember the things that are important to them – the things they need to know – and forget the rest."

- Daniel Quinn

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

- Bob Talbert

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

- Mark Van Doren

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

- Henry Adams

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"Strong-willed children become adults who change the world as long as can hang on for the ride and resist the temptation to ‘tame’ the spirit out of them."

- Sarah Stogryn

"Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives."

- Thomas Berry

"Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning."

- William Arthur Ward

"A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge and wisdom in the pupils."

- Ever Garrison

"As with everything else about children’s behavior, there’s nothing like a good role model. If you value play, your child will, too."

- Madeline Levine

"You don’t remember the times your dad held your handle bars. You remember the day he let go."

- Lenore Skenazy

"Children always learn, but not necessarily what you want them to learn."

- Dr.Lillian Katz

"Children grow up hearing how broken the environment is, how broken beyond repair. Plant strawberries together, make wild medicines, paint the sunrise. Show them proof that for every act of destruction, they can sow a seed, however small, of beauty."

- Nicolette Sowder

"Grown men can learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things that older people miss."

- Black Elk

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."

- Charles R. Swindoll

"All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants"

- J.W. Gardner

"There can never be too much nature inside a classroom. It is the antidote to the fast-paced, stressful world in which many young children live. Equally important, it encourages an appreciation of the natural world on which we depend."

- Condie Ward

"Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is."

- Yoda

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

- Lily Tomlin

"Good teachers are those who know how little they know. Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they don’t know."

- R. Verdi

"An environmental-based education movement—at all levels of education—will help students realize that school isn’t supposed to be a polite form of incarceration but a portal to the wider world."

- Richard Louv

"Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is where no one else has ever been."

- Alan Alda

"Although the brave do not live forever, the cautious do not live at all."

- Meg Cabot

"A hero is someone who has given their life to something greater than themselves."

- Joseph Campbell

"You can have a lot of fun when you have confidence. And when you’re having fun, you can accomplish amazing things."

- Joe Namath

"The secret to happiness is not success. The secret to success is happiness."

- Albert Schweitzer

"Wisdom listens; knowledge speaks."

- Jimi Hendrix

"Loving what you do is the only way to produce excellent work."

- Steve Jobs

"Peace begins with a smile."

- Mother Teresa

"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."

- Mother Teresa

"Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means."

- Ronald Reagan

"Peace is not something you wish for, it is something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away."

- John Lennon

"You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them."

- Michael Jordan

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Remember you're the one who can fill the world with sunshine."

- Snow White

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun."

- Mary Poppins

"Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one."

- Grandmother Willow

"You and I are a team. There is nothing more important than friendship."

- Mike Wazowski

"Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history."

- Ray Merritt

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

- Albert Einstein

"Each day provides its own gifts."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Forget about style; worry about results."

- Bobby Orr

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

- Carl Sagan

"If you focus on what you left behind, you will never see what lies ahead."

- Gusteau

"Boldness be my friend."

- William Shakespeare

"No pressure, no diamonds."

- Thomas Carlyle

"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler."

- Albert Einstein

"Never look back, darling. It distracts for the now."

- Edna Mode

"Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls."

- Erin Kenny

"Asking kids to meet target on standardized tests is like making them meet a sales quota. Our kids are not commodities."

- K.L. Nielsen

"I wake up in the morning torn between the desire to save the world and to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

- E.B White

"It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question."

- Decouvertes

"Instead of teaching children to get ‘there’, why not let them be here? Where is ‘there’ anyway? The world needs more ‘here’ than ‘there’."

- Vince Gowmon

"What matters is not what happens to you, but how you react to it."

- Epictetus

"The soul is healed by being with children."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Schooling prepares children for jobs, yet getting a job is not what life is about. Life exists in the space between all we deem important."

- Vince Gowmon

"If a child is poor in math but good at tennis, most people would hire a math tutor.  I would rather hire a tennis coach."

- Deepak Chopra

"Perhaps if tearful little boys were comforted instead of shamed there wouldn’t be so many angry men struggling to express and empathize with emotions."

- Lelia Scholl

"The moment I decided to follow instead of lead, I discovered the joys of becoming part of a small child’s world."

- Janet Gonzalez-Mena

"Ask any child development expert, and they will tell you that children do not develop in a straight line. There are no average children. There are no standard children."

- Cassi Clausen

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale."

- Hans Christian Andersen

"When we find music we like, we can all dance."

- Giles Andreae

"With great power comes great responsibility."

- Voltaire

"He who is not a good servant will not be a good master."

- Plato

"We all can dance when we find music we love."

- Giles Andreae

"If you close your eyes, you’ll miss the best things."

- Dr. Seuss

"A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child."

- Knights of Pythagoras

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."

- Robert Fulghum

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."

- Benjamin Disraeli

"The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang."

- Vince Lombardi

"You do better when you know better."

- Maya Angelou

"Dream big because every goal starts with a dream, and reach high because stars are hidden in your soul"

- Pamela Vaull Starr

"Surround yourself with people who will propel you forward."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Never let the odds prevent you from doing what you know deep down in your heart you were meant to do."

- H. Jackson Brown

"You can go in any direction you want."

- Dr. Seuss

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

- Albert Einstein

"My message is to have fun. Be silly. You’re allowed to be silly. There’s nothing wrong with that."

- Jimmy Fallon

"Be yourself and have fun."

- Richard Lowe

"Just play, have fun, and enjoy the game."

- Michael Jordan

"If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong."

- Groucho Marx

"Always work hard and have fun in what you do because I believe that’s when you’re much successful; you have to choose to do it."

- Simone Biles

"A good teacher will explain. The excellent teacher demonstrates. A great teacher inspires."

- William Arthur Ward

"A teacher’s job is to teach students to see vitality in themselves."

- Joseph Campbell

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

- Albert Einstein

"What an educator does in teaching is allow students to become themselves."

- Paulo Freire

"To do great work, you must first love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"Those who believe in the beauty of their dreams will have a bright future."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you must start if you want to become great."

- Zig Ziglar

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"The more you read, the more you will learn. The more you know, the further you will progress."

- Dr. Seuss

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"When action is taken to achieve a dream, it becomes a goal."

- Bo Bennett

"The greatest glory in life is not never falling, but rising each time we fall."

- Nelson Mandela

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me, and be my friend."

- Albert Camus

"He who laughs most, learns best."

- John Cleese

"I really love being human. But some days I really wish I could be fairy."

- Greta, age 4

"Wisdom begins with wonder."

- Socrates

"Preschool must be taught how to think rather than what to think."

- Margaret Mead

"Every day of our lives, we make deposits in our preschool’s memory banks."

- Charles R. Swindoll

"Preschool need role models, not critics."

- Joseph Joubert

"While we try to teach preschoolers everything there is to know about life, preschoolers teach us everything there is to know about life."

- Angela Schwindt

"Play is frequently mentioned as a diversion from serious learning. For preschool, however, play is serious learning. “Childhood work is play.”"

- Fred Rogers

"How freely we exchange ideas and feelings preserves or diminishes our code and standards, our heritage and ideals- the things we live by and teach preschoolers."

- Walt Disney

"Be a good one, whatever you are."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Your positive energy will radiate, and if you act like you are having fun, you’ll find you are."

- Jean Chatzky

"With the right combination of chalk and challenges, teachers can change lives."

- Joyce Meyer

"Teaching is an excellent way to continue learning."

- Matthea Harvey

"The teacher’s job is to start the learning process and then step back."

- John Warren

"You can’t stop a teacher from doing something. They simply do it."

- J.D. Salinger

"Teaching is the indispensable profession, the one that allows all other professions to exist."

- David Haselkorn

"A teacher who genuinely enjoys learning earns the right and ability to assist others in learning."

- Ruth Beechick

"The job of a teacher is to take a bunch of live wires and make sure they’re well-grounded."

- Darwin Martin

"The message in teaching is the method, not the content."

- Ashley Montague

"No one is perfect, which is why pencil erasers exist."

- Wolfgang Riebe

"Your worst enemy is your best teacher."

- Gautama Buddha

"Educate the preschools, and men will not need to be punished."

- Pythagoras

"The highest form of understanding is teaching."

- Aristotle

"I owe my life to my father, but I owe my life to my teacher."

- Alexander the Great

"Make every day your masterpiece."

- John Wooden

"My dream is that my four preschoolers will grow up in a nation where people will value a person’s character more than their skin tone."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You must always pass through failure on your way to success."

- Mickey Rooney

"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."

- Teddy Roosevelt

"Preschool see magic because they seek it."

- Christopher Moore

"Every child you meet is a divine appointment."

- Wess Stafford

"Preschools are like wet cement: anything that falls on them leaves an imprint."

- Haim Ginott

"Preschooler’s are the hands with which we grasp heaven."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"You must love preschoolers’ sacrificially. That is difficult. It is, however, the only way."

- Barbara Bush

"Hugs can be extremely beneficial, especially to preschoolers."

- Diana, Princess of Wales

"A few minutes of a parent’s time each day is the best inheritance a parent can give to preschool."

- Orlando Aloysius Battista

"Even if preschoolers are already asleep, always kiss them goodnight."

- H. Brown, Jackson Jr.

"Preschool are not just passing through our door. We have been given temporary custody of them so that we can love them and instill in them the morals that will guide them throughout the rest of their lives."

- James Dobson

"Kids never fail to mimic their parents or other adults, even though they are never very good at listening to them."

- James Baldwin

"Any child’s potential possibilities are the most fascinating and stimulating in all creation."

- Ray L. Wilbur

"Making preschoolers happy is the best way to make them good."

- Oscar Wilde

"The roots of responsibility and the wings of independence are the greatest gifts you can give to preschool."

- Denis Waitley

"The child should always be given the opportunity to interact with the realities of life; the thorns from his roses should never be removed."

- Ellen Key

"I’ve learned that asking your kids what they want and then advising them to go after it is the best way to give them advice."

- Harry S. Truman

"Go with all your heart wherever you go."

- Confucius

"Each lesson in life must be learned through experience."

- Helen Keller

"I believe God put us in this happy world to be happy and enjoy life."

- Robert Baden-Powell

"People rarely succeed unless they enjoy what they are doing."

- Dale Carnegie

"You should never stop having fun even if you’re growing up."

- Nina Dobrev

"The more you concentrate on having fun, the more fun you will have."

- A.D. Posey

"I only do this because I’m having fun, and the day I stop having fun, I’ll just walk away."

- Heath Ledger

"Reclaim your sense of adventure and have some fun; don’t take every moment of your life so seriously; allow yourself to enjoy life."

- Akiroq Brost

"Enjoy life. Have fun. Be kind. Have worth. Have friends. Be honest. Laugh. Die with dignity."

- Ricky Gervais

"All that matters is that I’m having fun, being myself, and doing what I love."

- James Charles

"I enjoy fighting for what I believe in and having fun while doing so."

- Andrew Breitbart

"The key is to have fun; the moment it becomes a grind, it’s over."

- Barry Gibb

"People want to be creatively satisfied, and having fun is a big part of that."

- John Lasseter

"When you’re having fun doing something, you don’t stop to wonder why."

- Marty Rubin

"As long as you do things with a smile on your face and have fun, you’re being unfiltered."

- Bretman Rock

"I’ve prioritized mental health, fun, and doing things that make me laugh."

- Philipa Soo

"Summer means good times and good sunshine, going on the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun."

- Brian Wilson

"I’m doing exactly what I want to do, and I’m having a good time doing it."

- David Johansen

"If you follow all the rules, you’ll miss all the fun."

- Katharine Hepburn

"I’m having a great time, enjoying my life, and raising preschool."

- Harry Connick, Jr.

"At this point, I’m having fun just being a musician and an artist."

- Peabo Bryson

"I like to have fun and stay relaxed."

- Usain Bolt

"I just like to do fun stuff; if it’s not fun, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life."

- Doja Cat

"Preschools are likely to live up to your expectations."

- Lady Bird Johnson

"It’s a lot easier to play football when you’re having fun."

- George Kittle

"Keep your spirit free, be flexible, and let go."

- Leslie Brown

"Never underestimate the value of having fun."

- Randy Pausch

"When you look back, the things that mean the most to you are just being with your friends and having a good time."

- Tom Fletcher

"Happiness is a part of who we are; joy is a feeling."

- Tony DeLiso

"I like to have fun, and I don’t need alcohol to do so."

- Rima Faikh

"I do have a childlike enthusiasm at times; I certainly enjoy life and sometimes find pleasure in childish things."

- Brian Baumgartner

"I’m going to have fun every day I have left because there is no other way to live; you just have to decide whether you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore."

- Randy Pausch

"You have to have fun along the way."

- Victoria Beckham

"Even in difficult times, it is possible to have fun."

- Eyden I.

"You expect to have fun and make money in any investment."

- Michael Jordan

"Just stay true to yourself; if you’re passionate about something, go for it; don’t make any sacrifices, just have fun."

- Blake Lewis

"We can make a difference while having fun."

- ATGW

"Stay healthy, do sports, and most importantly, have fun while doing sports."

- Rafael Nadal

"Life is too short not to have fun; we are only here for a short time in comparison to the sun and the moon and everything else."

- Coolio

"You can have a lot of fun when you have confidence, and when you have fun, you can do amazing things."

- Joe Namath

"Smile more, laugh more, and don’t get too worked up about things."

- Kenneth Branagh

"If you’re not having fun, try something new."

- Larry James

"Just keep taking risks and having fun."

- Garth Brooks

"Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity."

- Kay Redfield Jamison

"If you follow all the rules, you miss out on all the fun."

- Katherine Hepburn

"Happiness is living a life filled with fun, friends, and freedom."

- Lorrin L. Lee

"If you go around fearful, you’ll never enjoy life; you only get one chance, so have fun."

- Lindsey Vonn

"Work hard, play hard, and make history."

- Jeff Bezos

"Enjoy the small things in life, because one day you will look back only to realize that they were the big things."

- Robert Breault

"Education is not filling a pot, but lighting a fire."

- W.B. Yeats

"Teaching is the highest form of comprehension."

- Aristotle

"A teacher has an effect on eternity: he never knows where his influence ends."

- Henry Adams

"I can’t teach anyone anything; all I can do is make them think."

- Socrates

"Those who are aware do. Those who comprehend, teach."

- Aristotle

"Preschool is people to be unfolded, not things to be molded."

- Jess Lair

"A good teacher is just like a candle; it consumes itself in order to light the way for others."

- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

"Good Teaching is easily recognized. You can always tell because it awakens that sensation within you that tells you this is something you’ve always known."

- Frank Herbert

"Your worst adversary is also your best teacher."

- Buddha

"All teachings are just pointers. Living your own life is the true experience."

- Ming-Dao Deng

"The art of teaching is to know how to suggest."

- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"Teaching is simply demonstrating that something is possible. Learning is doing it for yourself."

- Paulo Coelho

"Teachers have three loves: learning, learners, and bringing the first two loves together."

- Scott Hayden

"There is no such thing as failure. Only feedback."

- Robert Allen

"The ability to say, 'The kids are working today as if I don’t even exist,' is the best indicator of a teacher’s success."

- Maria Montessori

"The greatest act of optimism is teaching."

- Colleen Wilcox

"No one should teach unless they love it."

- Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

"And He blessed them by taking them in his arms and putting his hands on them."

- Mark 10:16

"Like shoveling the sidewalk before the snow stops falling, housework should be done while preschools are still growing up."

- Phyllis Diller

"Life must be lived as if it were a game."

- Plato

"You can learn a lot from preschool. For example, how much patience you have."

- Franklin P. Jones

"Never waste a minute thinking about anyone you dislike."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Old men can make war, but preschools will make history."

- Ray Merritt

"I’ve learned that you can go anywhere you want to go, do anything you want to do, buy everything you want to buy, meet everyone you want to meet, and learn everything you want to learn, but if you don’t fall madly in love, you haven’t even begun to live."

- C. Joyful Bell

"A child is a beam of sunlight from the Infinite and Eternal, with virtue and vice possibilities but as yet unstained."

- Lyman Abbott

"Our most valuable resource is preschoolers."

- Herbert Hoover

"Slow down and smile."

- Carla White

"Sometimes, it’s better to bunk a class and enjoy with friends, because now, when I look back, marks never make me laugh, but memories do."

- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

"Start preschool on the right path, and they will not stray even when they are old."

- Proverbs 22:6

"Life is simple; just stay alive."

- Fakeer Ishavardas

"Preschooler’s are a crown to the aged, and parents are their preschool’s pride."

- Proverbs 17:6

"Offspring are a blessing from the LORD, and preschoolers are their reward."

- Psalms 127:3

"Preschools are living messages we send to a time we won’t see."

- John F. Kennedy

"Being with preschoolers heals the soul."

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Preschool enrich your life."

- Erma Bombeck

"The fruit of the womb is a reward, and preschoolers are a gift from the Lord."

- Psalms 127:3

"When a person’s personality shines through their looks, that is when they are cute."

- Natalie Portman

"To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today."

- Barbara Johnson

"Don't wait for opportunity. Create it."

- Chris Grosser

"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds."

"A little progress each day adds up to big results."

"Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"Failure is not fatal, and success is not final: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"I believe I can. I’m confident I can."

"Being kind is never a waste of time."

"Preschools are excellent imitators. So give them something fantastic to aspire to."

"Dare to be yourself, no matter what others may say or do."

"Be brave, be strong, be fearless. You are never alone."

"You're never too young to dream big."

"The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you achieve it."

- Unknown

"Curiosity is the spark that drives all learning."

"Parenthood is about raising and celebrating the child you have, not the child you thought you’d have. It’s about understanding your child is exactly the person they are supposed to be. And, if you’re lucky, they might be the teacher who turns you into the person you’re supposed to be."

"When we are kind to others, we also become happier."

"Do not educate your child to be rich. Educate him to be happy, so that when he grows up he knows the value of things not the price."

"Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily."

"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."

"To raise a child who is comfortable enough to leave you means you’ve done your job. They are not ours to keep, but to teach how to soar on their own."

"Together everyone achieves more."

- Unknown

"Your growth is limited only by how much you're willing to put in the effort."

- Unknown

"Broken crayons still color."

"When nothing goes right, go left."

"You become happier the more you give away."

"Each new and exciting story began with one person and a dream."

"We're better together!"

- Unknown

"Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success."

"Life is like a camera; focus on the positives, learn from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, try again."

"Preschool rarely misquote. In fact, they usually repeat what you shouldn’t have said word for word."

"Preschools are a great comfort to us in our old age, and they also help us get there quicker."

"Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a battle you don’t understand."

"Every achievement begins with the decision to try."

"Always believe something wonderful is about to happen."

"Chase your dreams and never let anyone dull your sparkle."