To all the teachers, librarians, professors, and parents-turned-homeschoolers: we see you and we thank you. Teaching is not easy, and virtual teaching is even harder. And you may sometimes feel overlooked or underappreciated, but you’re not to us. You’re everything to us. So thank you, and keep it up. We need you, our young people need you, and future generations need you.
We put together a list of quotes by notable writers about teachers and the importance of their role in our society. We hope you enjoy them. And if you’re a teacher, we hope these lift you up, if even briefly. If you know a teacher, share this with them and let them know they are appreciated. We also have education resources available for download to assist in your online classrooms. Our education team is happy to talk with you about them. Email education@americanwritersmuseum.org to learn more.
“Teachers are to inspire: librarians are to fulfill.”
—Ray Bradbury
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
—Rachel Carson
“Once you learn to read you will be forever free.”
—Frederick Douglass
“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.”
—John Steinbeck
“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”
—Fred Rogers
“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians…who all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves… So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
—Dr. Seuss
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
—Albert Einstein
“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”
—William Butler Yeats
“The teacher must be an actor, an artist, passionately in love with his work.”
—Anton Chekhov
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
—Nelson Mandela