Quotations for the Classroom

As an occasional teacher, I see many different classrooms. Teachers use many styles and encorporate many unique ideas and techniques to make learning an inclusive and rewarding process. Recently, I was fortunate to work in an intermediate classroom in which the classroom teacher incorporated weekly quotes. The students responded to the technique positively, repeating that week's quote to each other several times over the course of the day.

Weekly quotes in the classroom could be used in a number of ways.

• They could simply be a source of inspiration to the class.
• They could be used as a stepping stone in teaching a certain learning goal or technique.
• They could be used as a means of introducing a famous writer or historical figure who would be studied in more detail in class.
• The quote could be incorporated in the art curriculum as the stepping stone for a individual or class mural.

Used in any of the above ways or combinations, quotations are an admirable way to pique interest in learning and inspire even the most reluctant learners in your class.

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” — Clay P. Bedford

“Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future. ” — Euripides

“The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history. ” — Carl T. Rowan

“Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain. ” — John F. Kennedy

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. ” — John F. Kennedy

“Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.” — Eugene S. Wilson

“He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.” — Danish Proverb

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. ” — B.B. King

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. ” — Doris Lessing

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” — Chinese Proverb

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself. ” — Lloyd Alexander

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. ” — Confucius

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. ” — Abigail Adams

Knowledge itself is power. — Francis Bacon

The fate of empires depends on the education of youth. — Aristotle

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. — Muhammad

Learning is the best of all wealth. It is easy to carry. Thieves cannot steal it. Neither fire nor water can destroy it and far from decreasing, it increases with giving. — Nãlãdiyar-Divya

Education is not the filing of a pail but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yates

The true creator is necessity who is the mother of our invention. — Plato

There is no result in nature without a cause. Understand the cause and you wil have no need to experiment. — Leonardo Da Vinci

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions. — Claude Lévi-Strauss

Physics is puzzle-solving...puzzles created by nature, not by the mind of man. — Maria Goeppert Mayer

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. — Isaac Newton

We haven't failed. We now know a thousand things that won't work, so we are much closer to finding what will. — Thomas Edison

"I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everbody". — Bill Cosby

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play and z is keeping your mouth shut." — Albert Einstein

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. ” — Albert Einstein

“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something. ” — Morihei Ueshiba

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." — Vince Lombardi

“No matter how hard you work for success if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible.” — Baudjuin

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." — Bobby Unser

"Excellent things are rare." — Plato

“My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.'” — Helen Hayes

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. ” — Helen Keller

“Big thinking precedes great achievement. ” — Wilferd A. Petersen

“The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it. ” — Mack R. Douglas

“A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration. ” — Kurt Lewin

“The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become. ” — Harold Taylor

"The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do." — John Stuart Mill

"If there is no struggle there is no progress." — Frederick Douglas

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When pain ends, gain ends too." — Robert Browning

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water". — Rabindranath Tagore

"The difficult is done at once; the impossible takes a little longer." — Anthony Trollope

"I think the one lesson that I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention." — Diane Sawyer

"For every problem under the sun there is a remedy, or there's none. If there's one then go and find it, and if not then never mind it." — Anonymous

"Strategy is better than strength." — Hausa Proverb

"From the beginning, disability taught that life could be reinvented. In fact such an outlook was required." — John Hockenberry

"If you can't go over, go under." — Jewish Proverb

"Don't cross the bridge till you come to it, is a proverb old and of excellent wit." — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"You can't unscramble eggs." — John Pierpont Morgan