Recently, I was filling out a series of security questions for an online portal. I was surprised when one of the potential questions was, “Who was your favorite teacher?” The question caused me to think through all of the incredible men and women who have affected my life and helped forge me into the person I am today. My wife, Amy, has been in public education all of our married life. She has worked as a teacher, consultant, and now as an elementary school principal. This has given me many opportunities to see and experience education from every angle possible.

The level of love and sacrifice a teacher must exemplify when married to all of the  ongoing equipping and life-skills coaching required day to day is amazing. Here are some teacher quotes to inspire and remind you of the power of being a teacher!

A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Adams

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.  ~Aristotle

We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. ~Ben Sweetland

Grammar speaks; dialectics teach us truth; rhetoric gives colouring to our speech; music sings; arithmetic numbers; geometry weighs and measures; astronomy teaches us to know the stars.  ~Latin Maxim

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

To me, education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.   ~Muriel Spark

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich,  for the hopes of the instructed are better  than the wealth of the ignorant.  ~Epictetus

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”   ~William Arthur Ward

A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism.  ~Louis A. Berman

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.  The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.  ~Carl Jung

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.  ~Kahlil Gibran

A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.  ~Anon.

Modern cynics and skeptics see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.   ~John F. Kennedy

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.  ~Abraham Lincoln

I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well”  ~Alexander the Great

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.  ~Victor Hugo

When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.  ~The Talmud

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin as “Edith Ann

Teaching is the calling that most reflects the character of God for it requires love, knowledge, understanding and grace.  ~Monty Wright