Back-To-School Quotes That Will Get You on the Honor Roll (2024)

All good things must come to an end, and we’re sorry to report that those long summer days spent lounging at the pool must finally give way to autumnal days studying at school. And while writing an essay or studying for a calculus test is way less fun than, say, chilling with friends in the deep end, there are quite a few perks that come with heading back to the classroom. Think of all the cool school supplies you get to stock up on—for our money, there are few things finer than a Pink Pearl eraser—as well as an assortment of new clothes that are sure to show off the highlights and tan you got at the aforementioned pool.

Still feeling a little sad about getting down to business and cracking open those books? That’s understandable. But there’s something to be said about getting smarter. In fact, there are a whole lot of famous people ranging from Michelle Obama and the Dalai Lama to Oprah and Amy Poehler who have a whole lot to say on the topic. Take a gander, and we bet that their wise words will make you feel a little more excited about all the edification and enlightenment that will happen this year.

• “For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” —Amanda Gorman
• “You learn something new every day if you pay attention.” —Ray LeBlond
• “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it. It’s that we aim too low and reach it.” —Michelangelo
• “A sense of curiosity is nature’s original education.” —Smiley Blanton
• “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else.” —Henry Ward Beecher
• “If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.” —Michelle Obama
• “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Belonging starts with self-acceptance… Believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable, imperfect.” —Brene Brown
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” —Arthur Ashe
• “I’ve always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings.” —Jenny Han
• “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford
• “Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.” —Nora Ephron
• “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there is no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” —Derek Jeter
• “A no. 2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.” —Joyce Meyer
• “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” —Margaret Fuller
• “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” —B.B. King
• “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” —Thomas Huxley
• “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot
• “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I’m possible.'" —Audrey Hepburn
• “You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” —Zig Ziglar
• “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” —Robert Collier
• “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn… and change.” –Carl Roger

• “When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.” —Dalai Lama
• “When we empower girls hungry for education, we cultivate women who are emboldened to effect change within their communities and globally.” —Meghan Markle, The duch*ess of Sussex
• “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” —Angela Duckworth
• “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
• “You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.” —Michelle Obama
• “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Belonging starts with self-acceptance… Believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable, imperfect.” —Brene Brown
• “Education doesn’t make us smarter. It makes us whole.” —Jill Biden
• “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.” —Barak Obama
• “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” —G.K. Chesterton
• “You can’t do it alone. Be open to collaboration. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you. Spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”— Amy Poehler
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” —Malcolm X
• “The greatest gifts we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” —Maria Montessori
• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —Nelson Mandela
• “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” —Japanese Proverb
• “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes.” —Guy Kawasaki
• “The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character.” —Dorthea Dix
• “Education is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think.” —Albert Einstein
• “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” —Malala Yousafzai
• “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.” —Scott Hayden
• “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” —Colleen Wilcox
• “If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children.” —Confucius
• “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.” —Walt Disney
• “Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” —Lady Bird Johnson
• “Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them.” —Russell M. Nelson
• “Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t.” —Lydia Child
• “Everything is a learning process. Any time you fall over, it’s just teaching you to stand the next time.” —Joel Edgerton
• “You cannot dream of becoming something you do not know about. You have to learn to dream big. Education exposes you to what the world has to offer, to the possibilities open to you.” —Sonia Sotomayor
• “What we learn with pleasure, we never forget.” —Alfred Mercier
• “Think about every problem, every challenge we face. The solution starts with education.” —George H.W. Bush
• “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” —Herbert Spencer
• “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” —John Dewey
• “Intelligence plus character—that is the true goal of education.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
• “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” —Malcolm Forbes
• “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called ‘truth.’” —Dan Rather
• “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” —Margaret Mead
• “Nothing prevents boredom like a good book.” —Dave Pilkey
• “The road to freedom—here and everywhere on earth—begins in the classroom.” —Hubert Humphrey
• “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” —Roger Lewin
• “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” —Benjamin Franklin
• “Education is a right, not a privilege; it is an opportunity, not an entitlement.” —Arne Duncan
• “Every student can learn, just not on the same day or in the same way.” —George Evans

• “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” —Dorothy Parker
• “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” —Lily Tomlin
• “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” —Plato
• “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” —Taylor Swift
• “With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it’s like to live in someone else’s shoes.” —John Irving
• “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport of freedom.” —Oprah Winfrey
• “If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children.” —Confucius
• “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” —Fred DeVito
• “If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.” —Mark Spitz
• “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —C.S. Lewis
• “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” —Jim Ryun
• “Progress not perfection.” —Kimberly Snyder
• “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” —Wayne Gretzky
• “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” —Michael Jordan
• “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Pablo Picasso
• “A well-educated mind will always have more answers than questions.” —Helen Keller
• “You cannot dream of becoming something you do not know about. You have to learn to dream big. Education exposes you to what the world has to offer, to the possibilities open to you.” —Sonia Sotomayor
• “The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not graduation day.” —Harry Wong
• “School is a building, which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” —Lon Watters
• “Information may be free; an education is priceless.” —Marie Forleo
• “A new school year means new beginnings, new adventures, new friendships, and new challenges. The slate is clean and anything can happen.” —Denise Witmer
• “Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” —Alan Cohen
• “Learn as much as you can while you are young since life becomes too busy later.” —Dana Stewart Scott
• “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.” —Martin H. Fischer
• “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” —Brian Herbert

• “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” —Vidal Sassoon
• “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” —Oscar Wilde
• “The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” —Marvin Phillips
• “A no. 2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.” —Joyce Meyer
• “Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.” —E.C. McKenzie
• “Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them.” —Josie Bisset
• “We all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.” —Peter De Vries
• “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” —Milton Berle
• “No one is perfect. That’s why pencils have erasers.” —Wolfgang Riebe
• “You have brains in your head. You have feet on your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” —Dr. Seuss
• “Minds are like a parachutes. They only function when they are open.” James Dewar
• “It’s one of my favorite seasons of the year: Back to School.” —Dana Perino
• “To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler—and less trouble.” —Mark Twain
• “Be curious, not cool.” —Ken Burns
• “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it’s stupid.” —Albert Einstein
• “Work hard, nap hard.” —Demi Lovato