Quotes about teachers
page 12

“Mum said school mighta been different for me if I only give a damn. Maybe it was wasted on me like the teachers said. I didn't have any philosophy in me then, so I didn't know what to listen for. Most of it was pointless crap. Don't reckon I met a single wise person all the years I stayed but like I say, I wasn't paying close attention. And the thing is I miss it a bit. That's something I never thought I'd hear myself say. I didn't know what I was, what I could do. Except the lame things I did do.”

Tim Winton (1960) Australian writer

Part I, Ch.6 - p.43
The Shepherd's Hut (2018)

School, Personality

“The frontier of the higher life is everywhere contiguous to the common life, and we can cross the border at any moment. The higher life is as real as the grosser things in which we put our trust. But our eyes must be anointed so that we may see it.
The office of the religious teacher is to be a seer, and to make others see, and thus to win them into the upward way.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Life and Destiny (1913)

Life, Making love, Way

“Its always my conviction that young filmmakers do not actively need old filmmakers help, because the society in which they are living in, their surroundings and their knowledge is completely different. I mean there’s a whole set of different rules which they know better than we do, but if we use our experience to tell them what to do I think it hinders more than it helps. Not unless the old director who’s out to help is also a very good teacher that is saying to the student what he needs to know instead of just telling the student his experience. And being a teacher, I think I’ve been one myself and I know that I’m not good enough, because to be a great teacher is more difficult than to be a great filmmaker.”

Ann Hui (1947) Hong Kong film director

77. Mostra del Cinema - Ann Hui masterclass 28 Oct 2020, at 3 Min 12 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NNfVayr694 <br class="br">Masterclass with Ann Hui at the 77th Venice International Film Festival

Knowledge, Thinking, Help

“We want parents and teachers to regularly have conversations with young men and women about God’s plan for their lives. These should be ordinary conversations; otherwise, when the topic of vocations comes up, it seems like something arcane, unfamiliar, or mysterious.”

Paul Stagg Coakley (1955) Catholic archbishop

Oklahoma City’s archbishop on Satanists, vocations, and a unique canonization case https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/09/19/oklahoma-citys-archbishop-on-satanists-vocations-and-a-unique-canonization-case/ (September 19, 2016)

Women, Men, God, Parent

“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.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

Wisdom, Housing, Wise, Teachers' Day

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

People, Learning, Heart

“I suggest that scientific knowledge, though logically more articulate and far more complex, is of this sort. The books and teachers from whom it is acquired present concrete examples together with a multitude of theoretical generalizations. Both are essential carriers of knowledge, and it is therefore Pickwickian to seek a methodological criterion that supposes the scientist can specify in advance whether each imaginable instance fits or would falsify his theory.”

Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) American historian, physicist and philosopher

"Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research?", Criticism and the growth of knowledge edited by Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (1970)

Books, Imagination, Knowledge

“The teacher is the designer of the learning process a choreographer of discovery.”

William Coperthwaite (1930–2013) American yurt builder

A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity

Learning

“Just because the US is trying to suppress us does not mean we do not recognize it as a teacher. This will lead to isolation.”

Ren Zhengfei (1944) Chinese businessman

Speech at Huawei’s internal online forum (June 26, 2021)

“I hope leftist teachers have stepped on their toes. I have a fundamental problem with teachers trying to impose their opinion. A teacher must be neutral.”

Tom Van Grieken (1986) Belgian politician

Fuss about TikTok video Tom Van Grieken (Vlaams Belang): "In 2024 we will present a bill to left-wing teachers". https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/09/01/ophef-over-tiktok-filmpje-tom-van-grieken/

Hope, Problem

“Your teacher would like to see you do better in life than him, rather than limiting your reasoning according to his teachings.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life

“Once you know the true God, then seek Him out. Thank the teacher for showing you the right path. But keep your eyes on the target, which is God in this case.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God

“Whenever books seem so boring, it's a good time to turn to nature as the best teacher. This is the true path of spirituality or the discovery of reality.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Books, Nature, Reality, Time

“He comes for all people, religious and non-religious alike. He wishes only to be called "the Teacher' because that's what He is.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The State of the World 2010, public lecture in New York City, USA, (July 2010)

People

“I am not a soldier, but a preacher and teacher and could offer myself as a religious scholar and orator and I am willing to accept a position as that for the Al Qaeda organization.”

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (1965) One of Al-Qaeda's official spokesmen

Source: Kronos US v Sulaiman Abu Ghayth Statement https://kronosadvisory.com/Kronos_US_v_Sulaiman_Abu_Ghayth_Statement.1.pdf (July 2001)

“That the teachings of neither our modern teachers nor preachers are "wisdom from above" is fully demonstrated. It is proved not by any personal incorrectness in their statements or mistakes in life, for "to err is but human," but by incontrovertible facts.”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky book The Key to Theosophy

Source: The Key to Theosophy (1889)

Life, Wisdom, Personality

“There isn’t a right way to be educated; there are as many ways as there are fingerprints. We don't need state-certified teachers to make education happen — that probably guarantees it won't.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

"I Quit, I Think" (1991)

Education, Way

“I didn’t realize that in truth what makes you a good teacher is really living your own practice, and living it so much that you request it to other people. Ultimately, everything you do that you teach someone else is something that you’re working through to teach yourself, and that practice of really digging within yourself, it feels like having your soul cracked open.”

Jessamyn Stanley (1987) American yoga teacher and author

Source: Jessamyn Stanley is fighting for radical visibility and yoga for every body, Samantha Grasso, Aug 28, 2018, 2018 https://www.dailydot.com/irl/jessamyn-stanley/,

People, Truth, Feeling, Soul

“This important act reflects the will of a people demanding unity, especially within the opposition, in order to defeat the dictatorship... I want a social pact with every sector, the productive sectors, with business, with workers, with teachers, with farmers and campesinos, with the informal economy and small and medium-sized businesses”

Xiomara Castro (1959) First Lady of Honduras

Source: Quoted in Could Honduras Shift Left? A Look at Xiomara Castro, by Brendan O'Boyle, America's Quarterly, October 14, 2021

People, Business

“He brought me his report card from the teacher and he said
He wasn't very proud of it and sadly bowed his head.
He was excellent in reading, but arithmetic, was fair,
And I noticed there were several "unsatisfactorys" there;
But one little bit of credit which was given brought me joy —
He was "excellent in effort," and I fairly hugged the boy.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.86 - Effort, stanza 1.

Boy, Effort, Reading, Joy

“By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers, backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling—teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, and others—have ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled.”

John Taylor Gatto book Dumbing Us Down

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), p. 85

Children, Education, School

“There isn't a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as fingerprints. We don't need state-certified teachers to make education happen – that probably guarantees it won't... We don't need a national curriculum or national testing either. Both initiatives arise from ignorance of how people learn or deliberate indifference to it.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: "I Quit, I Think" (1991)

People, Education, Way, Learning

“I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t train children to wait to be told what to do; I can’t train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds; I can’t persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn’t any, and I can’t persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn’t true.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: "I Quit, I Think" (1991)

Children, People, Secret, Justice

“Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

Life

“This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

Perfection

“Devotion is the ring that allows the hook of the teacher’s compassion to pull you out of the mire of samsara.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most (2005); ISBN 1-59030-154-4

“We should also have national red-flag laws so that a parent, a teacher, a counselor can flag for a court that a child, a student, a patient is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that makes them a danger to themselves or to others.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks on Gun Violence in America

Law, Parent, Suicide

“It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Matthew VII: 12–20, pp. 68–69
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Matthew (1856)

Falseness

“I grew up in a world where there was no warmth - not from my parents, not from my friends or teachers. I felt somehow superfluous, forever in the way, an object of criticism.”

Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946–2022) Russian politician and political activist

"OBITUARY Vladimir Zhirinovsky, dark showman of the Russian far right" in Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/obituary-vladimir-zhirinovsky-dark-showman-russian-far-right-2022-04-06/

World, Way, Parent

“I'm no teacher. Never wanted to teach and don't believe in teaching an art. Science yes, business of course.. but an art cannot be taught. You can only inculcate it, you can be an exemplar, you can create an atmosphere in which it can grow. Well I suppose I, being an exemplar, could be called a teacher, in spite of myself. So go ahead, call me a teacher.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Quote from an interview on the NBC television program, Wisdom- A Conversation with Frank Lloyd Wright (1953)

Art, Business, Science

“If politicians were paid less and teachers more, we would have more educated people and fewer useless laws.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Se i politici venissero pagati meno e gli insegnanti di più, avremmo più persone istruite e meno leggi inutili.
Source: prevale.net

People, Education, Law

This quote waiting for review.

“A society can grow accustomed to a shortage of teachers; what it can hardly afford is to lose the reasons why it once considered them indispensable.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: La sociedad que olvidó a sus profesores. Por José Baroja. (2026, 13 junio). Le Monde Diplomatique. https://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/la-sociedad-que-olvido-a-sus-profesores-por-jose-baroja.html

This quote waiting for review.

“Teachers do not merely transmit knowledge; we keep alive the conversation between generations that allows a community to understand who it has been, who it is, and who it aspires to become.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Communication, Understanding, Knowledge

Quotes about teachers page 12

Quotes about teachers
page 12