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Education Quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I am a big believer in education, because when I grew up in Austria - when I grew up in Austria I had a great education. I had great teachers"

About this Quote

Schwarzenegger isn’t selling schooling as an abstract civic virtue; he’s pitching education as the original upgrade that made reinvention possible. The line works because it’s both humblebrag and origin story, delivered in that distinctly Schwarzenegger rhythm: repetition, plain nouns, no frills. “When I grew up in Austria” lands like a stamp of authenticity. He’s reminding an American audience that his confidence in institutions isn’t theoretical - it’s imported, tested, and tied to a real place with real teachers.

The subtext is political even when it’s not trying to be. Coming from a celebrity who became a governor, this is a quiet rebuttal to the idea that success is purely self-made grit. He’s building a bridge between his personal brand (discipline, ambition, the self as a project) and a communal investment (public education, competent professionals, the state doing its job). “Great teachers” is the key phrase: it shifts credit away from charisma and toward expertise. In a culture that loves lone heroes and distrusts credentialed authority, he’s sanctifying the people who shape you before you’re famous.

Context matters here, too. Schwarzenegger often speaks as an immigrant success story, and immigrants invoking education is rarely just nostalgia; it’s a claim about what the host country should protect if it wants its myths to stay true. The repetition reads less like eloquence than insistence, as if he’s trying to anchor a simple point against a noisy backdrop: you don’t get exceptional outcomes without ordinary, sustained institutions - and teachers are the front line.

Quote Details

TopicTeacher Appreciation
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. (2026, January 17). I am a big believer in education, because when I grew up in Austria - when I grew up in Austria I had a great education. I had great teachers. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-a-big-believer-in-education-because-when-i-29924/

Chicago Style
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "I am a big believer in education, because when I grew up in Austria - when I grew up in Austria I had a great education. I had great teachers." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-a-big-believer-in-education-because-when-i-29924/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I am a big believer in education, because when I grew up in Austria - when I grew up in Austria I had a great education. I had great teachers." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-a-big-believer-in-education-because-when-i-29924/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is a Actor from Austria.

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