‘The one who teaches is the giver of eyes’ - 80 proverbs and quotes on Teachers’ Day

Teachers’ Day is celebrated in dozens of countries around the world and is marked in India on 5th September. The second President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, was born on this day in September 1888. Since 1962, this day has been dedicated to teachers on the suggestion of this renowned educationist, scholar, and philosopher, who firmly believed that teachers should be the best minds in the country.

Schools across India celebrate Teachers’ Day, and in some schools, classes are even conducted by students as a mark of gratitude and appreciation. In this special compilation of 80 quotes and proverbs from India and around the world, we present a humble tribute to the teachers of the world. (See also our related compilation, World Book Day: 85 quotes on the joy of books and reading, and the articles Tips for education startups, EdTech opportunities, and Emerging edtech startups.)

A child mis-educated is a child lost. - John F. Kennedy

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. - Brad Henry

A good teacher isn't someone who gives the answers out to their kids but is understanding of needs and challenges and gives tools to help other people succeed. - Justin Trudeau

A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson. - John Henrik Clarke

A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard. - Eliphas Levi

A good teacher must himself be a fellow traveller in the exciting pursuit of knowledge. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

A good teacher must know how to arouse the interest of the pupil in the field of study. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions. - Martin H. Fischer

A good teacher who can take the zero pay and help kids develop physically, emotionally, socially, is literally an angel. - Eva Amurri

A load of books does not equal one good teacher. - Chinese proverb

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. - W. H. Auden

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. - Henry Brooks Adams

A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power. - Thomas Szasz

A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron. - Horace Mann

A true teacher defends his students against his own personal influences. - Amos Bronson Alcott

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. - John C. Maxwell

Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher. - Japanese proverb

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. - William Butler Yeats

Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students. - Solomon Ortiz

Education is the most important agent of social reform. - Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Everyone else is your teacher. - Buddha

Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system. - Sidney Hook

Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers. - Josef Albers

Human nature is fundamentally good, and the spread of enlightenment will abolish all wrong. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

I do not remember what I was taught, I only remember what I learnt. - Rabindranath Tagore

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. - Lily Tomlin

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved. - BR Ambedkar

I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession. - John Wooden

I touch the future. I teach. - Christa McAuliffe

I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me. - Ann Bancroft

I'm not a teacher: only a fellow traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as well as you. - George Bernard Shaw

If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher. - APJ Abdul Kalam

If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow. - John Dewey

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. - Chinese proverb

If you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught. - Oscar Hammerstein II

If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure. - Jack Ma

If you give me rice, I will eat today. If you teach me how to grow rice, I will eat everyday. - Mahatma Gandhi

If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society's heroes. - Guy Kawasaki

In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else. - Lee Iacocca

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. - Jacques Barzun

It's the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom. - Michael Morpurgo

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

It takes a long time for a child to praise its teacher. - Tamil proverb

One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. - Malala Yousafzai

One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen. - Philip Wylie

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help. - Bodhidharma

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality. - Dalai Lama XIV

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. - E.M. Forster

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges. - Joyce Meyer

Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth. - Helen Caldicott

Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself. - Chinese proverb

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me. - APJ Abdul Kalam

Teaching is leaving a vestige of oneself in the development of another. And surely the student is a bank where you can deposit your most precious treasures. - Eugene P. Bertin

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. - Jacques Barzun

Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. - John Steinbeck

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. - Bill Gates

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. - Mark Van Doren

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn. - Cicero

The average teacher explains complexity; the gifted teacher reveals simplicity. - Robert Brault

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 dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth. - Dan Rather

The end-product of education should be a free creative man, who can battle against historical circumstances and adversities of nature. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. - Aurobindo Ghosh

The greatest sign of a success for a teacher...is to be able to say, The children are now working as if I did not exist. - Maria Montessori

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. - William Arthur Ward

The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher. - Elbert Hubbard

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching. - Aristotle

The one who teaches is the giver of eyes. - Tamil proverb

The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know. - Simone Weil

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. - C. S. Lewis

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

The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. - Anatole France

The woods are lovely, dark and deep/ But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep. - Robert Frost

That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends. - Maria Callas

There is no recipe to be a great teacher, that's what is unique about them. - Robert Sternberg

They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don't know it. - Nicholas Sparks

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well. - Aristotle

To crack the target, one should have thirst for achieving it, next comes positive thoughts and passion. - Anand Kumar, Founder, Super 30

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. - Karl A. Menninger

Whatever I could not achieve as a player, I have been able to as a coach. - Pullela Gopichand

When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don't honour them enough, we don't pay them enough. - Charles Kuralt

When we think we know, we cease to learn. - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. - Swami Vivekananda