Ready to get your classroom pumped for the day? Instead of struggling to find the right words, check out these motivational quotes for students. We put together this list that’s perfect for sharing with kids. You can even use these motivational quotes in your own journal or vision board. These motivational quotes are great for when your students need a little boost.
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Motivational Quotes by Scientists, Inventors, and Innovators
1. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. —Albert Einstein
2. There is no substitute for hard work. —Thomas Edison
3. Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. —Henry Ford
4. No one of us is as smart as all of us. —Ken Blanchard
5. Rule no. 1 is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule no. 2 is, it’s all small stuff. —Robert Eliot
6. In a world where you can be anything, be kind. —Jennifer Dukes Lee
7. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. —Walt Disney
8. There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. —Zig Ziglar
9. The power of imagination makes us infinite. —John Muir
10. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. —Albert Einstein
11. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Joseph Addison
12. Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it. —Stephen Hawking
13. Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. —Albert Einstein
14. Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out. —Robert Collier
15. Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. —John Wooden
16. You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time. —Charles F. Kettering
17. When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, “Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?” That was a huge bet he made, and it worked. —Elon Musk
18. One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. —Marie Curie
19. We should begin at the very root from which we spring, we should effect a radical reform in the character of the food. —Nikola Tesla
20. What’s the use of doing all this work if we don’t get some fun out of this? —Rosalind Franklin
21. Inspiration is never at variance with information; in fact the more information one has, the greater will be the inspiration. —George Washington Carver
22. Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch. —Tim Berners-Lee
23. Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help shall they be saved. —Jane Goodall
24. I believe that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction. —Rachel Carson
25. Space belongs to all of us. There is science in dance and art in science. —Mae Jemison
Motivational Quotes by Authors, Writers, and Philosophers
26. The secret to success can be found in people’s daily agendas. —John C. Maxwell
27. Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. —Margaret Fuller
28. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. —Howard Zinn
29. I’ve noticed when I fear something, if I just end up doing it, I’m grateful in the end. —Colleen Hoover
30. Man’s mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension. —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
31. There is always time to make right what is wrong. —Susan Griffin
32. Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing. —William Arthur Ward
33. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. —William Butler Yeats
34. Procrastination is the thief of time. —Edward Young
35. Youth is the time to study wisdom; old age is the time to practice it. —Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
36. If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll get nothing done. —Norman Vincent Peale
37. What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. —Henry Stanley Haskins
38. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. —Zig Ziglar
39. Change your thoughts and you can change the world. —Norman Vincent Peale
40. You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there. —Edwin Louis Cole
41. If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. —Roald Dahl
42. The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. —Plutarch
43. There are no traffic jams on the extra mile. —Zig Ziglar
44. We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. —Joseph Campbell
45. I’m not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesn’t open for me. I’m going to create my own door and walk through that. —Ava DuVernay
46. Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. —Toni Morrison
47. You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible. —Deepak Chopra
48. How wild it was, to let it be. —Cheryl Strayed
49. Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. —Jim Rohn
50. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. —A.A. Milne
51. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. —Henry David Thoreau
52. Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. —Eckhart Tolle
Motivational Quotes by Artists, Musicians, and Creatives
53. If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one! —Dolly Parton
54. Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on. —Lady Gaga
55. Wake up determined, go to bed satisfied. —Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
56. If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it. —Oprah Winfrey
57. Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen—that stillness becomes a radiance. —Morgan Freeman
58. Not having the best situation but seeing the best in your situation is the key to happiness. —Marie Forleo
59. Embrace the glorious mess that you are. —Elizabeth Gilbert
60. You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script. —Oprah Winfrey
61. Nobody built like you, you designed yourself. —Jay-Z
62. I care about decency and humanity and kindness. Kindness today is an act of rebellion. —Pink
63. Our lives are stories in which we write, direct, and star in the leading role. Some chapters are happy while others bring lessons to learn, but we always have the power to be the heroes of our own adventures. —Joelle Speranza
64. When it comes to luck, you make your own. —Bruce Springsteen
65. A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want. —Madonna
66. Being vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness. —Selena Gomez
67. Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don’t, it hurts even more. —Aretha Franklin
68. I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. Something just motivates you to keep moving. —Tina Turner
69. I’m realizing how much I’ve diminished my own power. I’m not doing that no more. —Alicia Keys
70. All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. —Earl Nightingale
71. We are not our best intentions. We are what we do. —Amy Dickinson
72. We have to let go of who we think we should be and embrace what is. —Achea Redd
73. The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. —Vincent van Gogh
74. Pain, pleasure, and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence. —Frida Kahlo
75. Don’t gain the world and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold. —Bob Marley
Motivational Quotes by Athletes and Other Sports Figures
76. Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there. —Bo Jackson
77. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. —Arthur Ashe
78. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. —Michael Jordan
79. The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus. —Bruce Lee
80. It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. —Sir Edmund Hillary
81. The road to success is always under construction. —Arnold Palmer
82. I tell myself, “You’ve been through so much, you’ve endured so much, time will allow me to heal, and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete, and mother I am today.” —Serena Williams
83. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. —Jim Ryun
84. We have to be better. We have to love more, hate less. We’ve gotta listen more and talk less. We’ve gotta know that this is everybody’s responsibility. —Megan Rapinoe
85. The one thing that’s common to all successful people: They make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do. —Michael Phelps
86. I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I’m competing with is me. —Wilma Rudolph
87. I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles. —Simone Biles
88. A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. —Jackie Robinson
89. I was born for soccer, just as Beethoven was born for music. —Pelé
90. Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them. —Mia Hamm
91. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. —Babe Ruth
92. The main thing is not a matter of wanting to win; the main thing is being scared to lose. —Billie Jean King
93. For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world. —Jesse Owens
94. Once you’ve been number one, you can never be satisfied with less. —Chris Evert
95. What I’m doing right now, I’m chasing perfection … and if I don’t get it, I’m going to get this close. —Kobe Bryant
96. When you first get a hill in sight, look at the top of it only once. Then imagine yourself at the bottom of the other side. —Florence Griffith Joyner
97. You’re the only one who can make the difference. Whatever your dream is, go for it. —Magic Johnson
98. Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you. —Mary Lou Retton
99. I’ve done it before. It won’t be the last time. You’re going to go years where you just don’t win. That’s okay, as long as you keep trying to improve. —Tiger Woods
100. The only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet. —Nadia Comăneci
Motivational Quotes by Leaders, Activists, and Politicians
101. We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. —Martin Luther King Jr.
102. Spread love everywhere you go. —Mother Teresa
103. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —Les Brown
104. If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within. —Maya Angelou
105. Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye. —Helen Keller
106. For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end. —Michelle Obama
107. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. —Frederick Douglass
108. If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. —Marcus Garvey
109. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. —Maya Angelou
110. In a gentle way, you can shake the world. —Mahatma Gandhi
111. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. —Maya Angelou
112. Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time. —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
113. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. —Rosa Parks
114. It’s not what happens to us that sets us apart. It’s the decisions that we make, it’s the choices that we make—the way we decide to lead our lives—that decides what we truly are. —Elizabeth Smart
115. I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role. —Eleanor Roosevelt
116. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished. —Nelson Mandela
117. We are never assured of justice without a fight. —Angela Davis
118. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. —Mahatma Gandhi
119. I started with this idea in my head, “There’s two things I’ve got a right to … death or liberty.” —Harriet Tubman
120. I hope if I am remembered it will finally be for what I have done, not for what I happen to be. —Shirley Chisholm
121. We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure. —Cesar Chavez
122. We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us. —John Lewis
123. There is no greater weapon than knowledge and no greater source of knowledge than the written word. —Malala Yousafzai
124. I isn’t goin’ to die, honey, Ise goin’ home like a shootin’ star. —Sojourner Truth
125. We shall have to learn again to be one nation, or one day we shall be no nation. —Margaret Thatcher
Motivational Quotes for Overcoming Challenges
126. You do not notice changes in what is always before you. —Colette
127. Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys. —Alphonse de Lamartine
128. Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. —Kahlil Gibran
129. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos. —David Cronenberg
130. The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. —Ben Okri
131. Do not look upon this world with fear and loathing. Bravely face whatever the gods offer. —Morihei Ueshiba
132. To solve a problem or to reach a goal, you don’t need to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach. —W. Clement Stone
133. The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience, not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life. —Leo Tolstoy
134. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. —Paulo Coelho
135. All we are asked to bear we can bear. That is a law of the spiritual life. The only hindrance to the working of this law, as of all benign laws, is fear. —Elizabeth Goudge
136. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul—and sings the tunes without the words—and never stops at all. —Emily Dickinson
137. You learnt that, whatever you are doing in life, obstacles don’t matter very much. Pain or other circumstances can be there, but if you want to do a job bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it done. —Jack Youngblood
138. Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching the earth, touching ground. —Chögyam Trungpa
139. Shining through tears, like April suns in showers, that labor to overcome the cloud that loads em. —Thomas Otway
140. An irrational fear should never be simply let alone, but should be gradually overcome by familiarity with its fainter forms. —Bertrand Russell
141. Your life is not a problem to be solved, but an adventure to be enjoyed. You are doing better than you think. —Alan Cohen
142. A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love. —Stendhal
143. The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. —Theodore Isaac Rubin
144. There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome—to be got over. —Arthur Schopenhauer
145. If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact, not to be solved, but to be coped with over time. —Shimon Peres
146. Art begins with resistance—at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor. —André Gide
147. The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity. —Lewis Grizzard
148. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. —John Henry Newman
149. Change means that what was before wasn’t perfect. People want things to be better. —Esther Dyson
150. To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not. —Grenville Kleiser
Motivational Quotes by Educators
152. The development of the individual can be described as a succession of new births at consecutively higher levels. —Maria Montessori
153. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. —John Dewey
154. There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple, and useful life. —Booker T. Washington
155. Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power. —Horace Mann
156. To study is not to consume ideas, but to create and re-create them. —Paulo Freire
157. The essential functions of the mind consist in understanding and in inventing, in other words, in building up structures by structuring reality. —Jean Piaget
158. The student is infinitely more important than the subject matter. —Nel Noddings
159. We all have need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life. —Charlotte Mason
160. Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal. —Howard Gardner
161. You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. —Rabindranath Tagore
162. Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others. —Fred Rogers
163. If I do not speak in a language that can be understood there is little chance for a dialogue. —bell hooks
164. Sometimes getting away from school is the best thing that can happen to a great mind. —Ken Robinson
165. Good schools, like good societies and good families, celebrate and cherish diversity. —Deborah Meier
166. The task of organizing human happiness needs the active cooperation of man and woman: it cannot be relegated to one half of the world. —Lillian Wald
167. Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered … just one kind word to another person. —Fred Rogers
168. I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries. Imagine a history teacher making history! —Christa McAuliffe
169. Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough. —Mary McLeod Bethune
170. In the development of intelligence, nothing can be more “basic” than learning how to ask productive questions. —Neil Postman
171. Let a man be stimulated by poetry, established by the rules of propriety, and perfected by music. —Confucius
172. I encourage you to look at the world around you and think about how it works. My friends, you can go forth and make this world a better place. —Bill Nye
173. Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. —Fred Rogers
174. The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. —John Dewey
175. Freedom in intellectual work is found to be the basis of internal discipline. —Maria Montessori
176. Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it. —Marva Collins
177. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. —Sydney J. Harris
178. Be a student as long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. —Henry L. Doherty
200. No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. —John Keating in Dead Poets Society
More Motivational Quotes
201. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. —Unknown
202. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —Unknown
203. True education is about getting the best out of oneself. —Unknown
204. The best way to predict your future is to create it. —Unknown
205. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. —Unknown
206. Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. —Unknown
207. The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. —Mark Twain
208. I’m a big believer that success is never final and failure is never fatal. —Jackie Speier
209. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. —Unknown
210. The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work. —Unknown
211. If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it. —Unknown
212. It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless. —Giacomo Casanova
213. You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character. —Unknown
214. The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could. —Unknown
215. Work until your bank account looks like a phone number. —Unknown
216. Do not wait for the perfect time and place to enter, for you are already onstage. —Unknown
217. Worry is a misuse of imagination. —Unknown
218. A year from now you will wish you had started today. —Unknown
219. Resilience is when you address uncertainty with flexibility. —Unknown
220. True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. —Unknown
221. Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. —Unknown
222. When you feel like quitting, think about why you started. —Unknown
223. Strive for progress, not perfection. —Unknown
224. Starve your distractions, feed your focus. —Unknown
225. If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice. —Unknown
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