50 Inspirational Quotes Every Principal Should Know to Lead with Vision and Heart

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

- John F. Kennedy

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

- Nelson Mandela

"Great leaders harness personal courage, capture the hearts and minds of others and empower new leaders to make the world a better place."

- Maxine Driscoll, Founder Think Strategic

"In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a prerequisite."

- Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."

- George Washington Carver

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

- President John Quincy Adams

"Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality."

- Warren G. Bennis

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be."

- Rosalynn Carter

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

- Jack Welch

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."

- Stephen Hawking

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit."

- Arnold Glasow

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there."

- John Buchan

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

- Steve Jobs

"Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do."

- Nelson Mandela

"I have three precious things, which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."

- Lao Tsu, Chinese philosopher

"You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people."

- Cornel West, philosopher and author

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

- Albert Einstein

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

- Albert Einstein

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

- Albert Einstein

"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

"As we look ahead into the 21st century, leaders will be those who empower others."

- Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

"If we expect kids to be losers they will be losers; if we expect them to be winners they will be winners. They rise, or fall, to the level of the expectations of those around them, especially their parents and their teachers."

- Jaime Escalante, calculus teacher whose life inspired the film “Stand and Deliver”

"We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends."

- Mary Mcleod Bethune

"You never teach a subject, you always teach a child. You teach children in a way that they will learn, and then things will fall in place for them."

- Dorothy Height, civil rights and women’s rights activist

"Go back to your why and always find joy in your work. I want to make sure that no matter their background, children have experiences at school that will launch them into what they want for their future."

- Kristin Eng, Illinois

"Students remember their relationships. They remember the people who believed in them. They remember developing new skills and having confidence in those skills."

- Jessica Nauiokas, New York

"Create an environment where people enjoy coming to work. School should be fun. Mistakes will be made. We do our best learning through our failures so invite failure in. And still be joyous."

- Rictor Craig, Washington, D.C.

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

- Aristotle

"To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes."

- Brene Brown, author and researcher

"You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things."

- Mother Teresa

"You can’t lead anyone if you can’t lead yourself!"

- Maxine Driscoll, Founder Think Strategic

"Stick it out for more than three years. Every year is going to challenge you, but if you stay focused on your vision, you’ll have those small moments when you know it was worth it."

- Cristina Segura, California

"The only way out of darkness is light. Love is the most important factor for educators, and that love is high expectations."

- Maggy Olson, Wisconsin

"You can’t do this on your own. If you don't have a team, develop one. Keep pushing forward, and others will definitely follow."

- Felipe Jackson, Georgia

"The highest result of education is tolerance."

- Helen Keller

"Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men."

- W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights activist and sociologist

"The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge."

- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., historian and filmmaker

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

- Confucius

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."

- Booker T. Washington

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

- Aristotle

"I think about how we can provide what we would want for our own children … and what will continue to set our students up for success. We can’t negotiate with that."

- Miguel del Toro, Maryland

"We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent."

- Barack Obama

"Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction."

- Anne Sullivan, instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller

"Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense."

- Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education

"Love what you do. The job is hard. Our number one priority is to our kids. And if you don’t love what you do, it shows."

- Jessica Graham, Washington

"I've led a school whose faculty and students examine and discuss and debate every aspect of our law and legal system. And what I've learned most is that no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom. I've learned that we make progress by listening to each other, across every apparent political or ideological divide."

- Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

"No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself."

- Madonna

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"There is no single best way to teach because there is no single best way to learn."

- Chris Dede, education researcher and innovator

"I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm."

- Septima Poinsette Clark, civil rights activist

"The world needs all types of minds."

- Temple Grandin, animal science and autism education expert

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."

- Fred Rogers, host of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood”

"The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for."

- Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House on the Prairie” series

"You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way."

- Lady Gaga

"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

- J.K. Rowling

"To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’"

"One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child."