Teacher Quotes

"In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'"

Jimmy Carter, President

"Experience is the teacher of all things"

Julius Caesar, Leader

"Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind"

Colin Powell, Statesman

"Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know"

Vladimir Nabokov, Novelist

"I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up"

Maya Lin, Architect

"Why can't teachers end up owning schools, the way waiters can open their own restaurants?"

Peter Brimelow, Journalist

"Teacher unions are an interest group that acts in defense of their own interests, which means the union bosses' interests, not the members"

Peter Brimelow, Journalist

"Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary"

Warren G. Bennis, Psychologist

"Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students"

Charles Kuralt, Journalist

"South Koreans who have seen and praised the mass games should remember the hardship of tearful children. Teachers drive them hard with curses and orders to repeat and repeat. When the children return home in the evening, they can hardly walk"

Kim Il-sung, Leader

"A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power"

Thomas Szasz, Psychologist

"Our educational results lag behind other states, and other nations, but worse still, behind the potential of the kids and the devoted teachers in our classrooms"

Mitch Daniels, Politician

"We have to provide good teachers, good environment, community involvement with schools"

David Selby, Actor

"When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don't honor them enough, we don't pay them enough"

Charles Kuralt, Journalist

"Vadim was both my teacher and my husband. I placed myself entirely in his hands"

Brigitte Bardot, Actress

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well"

Alexander the Great, Leader

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

Dalai Lama, Leader

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher"

William Wordsworth, Poet

"Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love"

Stevie Wonder, Musician

"I ain't here to argue about his facial features. Or here to convert atheists into believers. I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers the way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way yall need Jesus"

Kanye West, Musician

"I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way"

Neale Donald Walsch, Author

"In other words, if a teacher only teaches in one way, then they conclude that the kids who can't learn well that way don't have the ability, when, in fact, it may be that the way the teacher's teaching is not a particularly good match to the way those kids learn"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"Then I heard this genius teacher Stella Adler - I recommend you read anything you might find about her and if you have anyone interested in theatre, you get them one of her books"

Harvey Keitel, Actor

"When I left Europe in 1987 I did so with the thought that my relevance as a composition teacher would benefit from a certain cool distance to certain tendencies I had been observing for several years with increasing disquiet"

Brian Ferneyhough, Composer

"But in any case, I did poorly on the tests and so, in the first three years of school, I had teachers who thought I was stupid and when people think you're stupid, they have low expectations for you"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"I think what should be celebrated about our campaign is we have over 3 million people who have contributed to our campaign - teachers, firefighters, nurses, retirees. They're making up the backbone of this field organization in the country"

David Plouffe, Public Servant

"I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment"

James Levine, Musician

"The American people know the economy is too weak. Too many of them are suffering. So the question for Washington is, are we going to continue to play political games and - and - or are we going to say, we can do something right now to create jobs, to put money in the pockets of the middle-class, hire construction workers, teachers, veterans?"

David Plouffe, Public Servant

"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system"

Sidney Hook, Philosopher

"Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure"

Sidney Hook, Philosopher

"We have seen that, in another unfunded mandate, the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, which created tougher standards, and we all support that, but Congress did not provide the money to attract and hire the best teachers"

Bob Filner, Politician

"Every child grows; everything depends on the teacher"

Shinichi Suzuki, Musician

"Teachers can go on cruises with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and anyone can spend the summer as a volunteer in a National Parks and even earn money doing it"

Matthew Lesko, Entertainer

"I had an art teacher who's the reason I got there in high school who encouraged me to go to Alabama. That's where she had gone and kept raving over their art department"

Sela Ward, Actress

"We've heard from many teachers that they used episodes of Star Trek and concepts of Star Trek in their science classrooms in order to engage the students"

Patrick Stewart, Actor

"There is no recipe to be a great teacher, that's what is unique about them"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"In other words, unlike some people with new theories, we will go out, we'll go into a school and we get products and the products are evaluated, whether it's by teachers or others. The scores are quantified and then we compare performances"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice, which I enjoyed, and still do"

Matt Cameron, Musician

"When I had my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will teach you the technique, but also how to listen to your voice"

Cecilia Bartoli, Musician

"And I found out, the other part of it is that I found out and in my desire to life successfully, that baseball fit very well into my life. It's been a great teacher, trainer, mentor and you'll see what I mean in the next few minutes that I have to speak"

Dave Winfield, Athlete

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