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50 Best Back-to-School Quotes That Will Get Kids Excited to Learn

Inspirational, funny and encouraging sayings to motivate any student.

By Amina Lake Abdelrahman and Yaa Bofah
preview for Back-to-School Organization Ideas That Are Worth a Try

Back-to-school season always brings up so many emotions. Excitement fills the air as kids get their first day outfits ready and test out their backpacks. Don't forget the fun of picking out new folders, pencils and pens and every school supply on their assigned list. While kids and parents are preparing at home, teachers are hard at work setting up their classrooms and formulating their lesson plans to engage and inspire their students.

It often happens that all the running around, stress and everything else that late August and early September brings can overshadow the importance of setting up our kids for success at school. If you need to remind yourself (or your kids!) just how much education matters, we've got a list of back-t0-school quotes to get everybody's head in the game. From inspirational sayings about school to funny messages about going back to class, at least some of these quotes are bound to speak to you. Parents can stick one in their kid's lunch box and teachers can start the day off with an encouraging line to get their pupils pumped.

But don't stop here! Check out our fall quotes, inspirational messages and daily affirmations for more inspiration.

1

Miachel Jordan

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You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

2

Maya Angelou

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It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

3

Arne Duncan

best back to school quotes

Education is a right, not a privilege; it is an opportunity, not an entitlement.

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4

Abraham Lincoln

best back to school quotes

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

5

Malcolm X

best back to school quotes

Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.

6

Andy McIntyre

best back to school quotes

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

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7

Helen Keller

best back to school quotes

The highest result of education is tolerance.

8

Maya Angelou

back to school quotes

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

9

George Bernard Shaw

best back to school quotes

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

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10

Langston Hughes

best back to school quotes

Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

11

James Baldwin

best back to school quotes

The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.

12

Kofi Annan

best back to school quotes

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.

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13

Mahatma Gandhi

best back to school quotes

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

14

Malala Yousafzai

best back to school quotes

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

15

Malcolm Forbes

best back to school quotes

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

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16

Albert Einstein

back to school quotes

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

17

Virginia Woolf

best back to school quotes

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

18

Walt Disney

best back to school quotes

If you can dream it, you can do it.

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19

Jenny Han

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Danielle Carson

I've always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings.

20

Martin Luther King Jr.

back to school quotes — martin luther king jr
Danielle Carson

Intelligence plus character — that is the true goal of education.

Headshot of Amina Lake Abdelrahman
Amina Lake Abdelrahman

Amina is a product review writer and editor who worked as an editorial assistant in the Good Housekeeping Institute from 2018 to 2020, writing original content based on GH Lab experts' product testing and analysis. Amina graduated from Montclair State University with a B.A. in communication studies and journalism.

Headshot of Yaa Bofah
Editorial Fellow

Yaa Bofah is an editorial fellow at Good Housekeeping. She is a freelance illustrator and created original cover art for The Fashion Bomb Daily’s first e-book series. She enjoys supporting philanthropic endeavors and being an advocate for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. 

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