110 Role Model Quotes For Kids To Look Up To

Writvik Gupta
Dec 12, 2023 By Writvik Gupta
Originally Published on Mar 11, 2021
Edited by Isobel Murphy
Little boy aspiring to be a businessman and illustrating his future in a big shadow

Role models help one feel motivated and inspired and enable our young ones to find the right perspective to excel in life.

A role model inspires others, especially young kids, to do something good and follow the right kind of values consistently in life. Often role models are major personalities in film, art, science, technology, and philosophy.

Quotes about being a role model are positive and uplifting in nature as they help young minds to do something positive in life. Being a role model is hugely important when building an exciting future for oneself and the world.

When being a role model, quotes about being a role model can help to motivate you. They encourage us to help the young think big and be brilliant in life.

You can read some great role model quotes for kids to look up to here. Click on these be fearless quotes and dream big quotes to find more interesting quotes.

Role Model Quotes For The Young Ones

Here are some role models quotes to read for the young ones and the young at heart.

1. "Each person must live their life as a model for others".

- Rosa Parks.

2. "If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then, you are an excellent leader."

- Dolly Parton.

3. "Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing."

- Mary D. Poole.

4. "You manage things; you lead people."

- Grace Murray Hopper.

5. "But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, 'Yes, someone like me can do this."

- Sonia Sotomayor.

6. "Being a role model, is equal parts being who you actually are and what people hope you will be."

- Meryl Streep.

7. "Here’s what I always say: If they can see it, they can be it."

- Geena Davis.

8. "Be the flame of fate, that torch of truth to guide our young people toward a better future for themselves and for this country."

- Michelle Obama.

9. "I think role models also start in the home with your parents."

- Dominique Wilkins.

10. "Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating."

- John Wooden.

11. "We need good role models, and they have to start at the top."

- Frank Serpico.

12. "Be a role model just because you can and because you care."

- Unknown*.

13. "Pick your role models wisely."

- Lana Del Rey.

14. "Role models set goals for you and try to make you as good as they are."

- Kasey Zacharias.

15. "My role model didn’t tell me, he showed me."

- Unknown*.

16. "We tend to become like those we admire."

- Thomas Monson.

17. "Children need role models rather than critics."

- Joseph Joubert.

18. "I’ve always thought of myself as a role model even before being a celebrity."

- Eva Longoria.

19. "When I think of my version of a role model, it’s not about being the perfect Samaritan; it’s just being out there and being honest and happily imperfect."

- Zoe Kravitz.

20. "People who dream of something bigger and better are good role models."

- Andrew Shue.

21. "Be the role model you needed when you were younger."

- Unknown*.

22. "To change bad habits we must study the habits of successful role models."

- Jack Canfield.

23. "A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too. I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness."

- Miranda Kerr.

24. "Take care of yourself, be healthy, and always believe you can be successful in anything you truly want."

-  Alessandra Ambrosio.

25. "If you believe in yourself and feel confident in yourself, you can do anything. I really believe that."

- Karlie Kloss.

26. "It’s something that I realized women do constantly and don’t even know that they’re doing it: They say these negative things about themselves that they would never say to someone else."

- Tyra Banks.

27. "If you are ambitious you can have a moment of glory but it will most likely be temporary. But talent always finds its way out."

- Natalia Vodianova.

28. "There’s this whole idea of perfection. What younger girls don’t realize is that these girls do have problems. It’s good for people to realize everyone is human."

-  Georgia May Jagger.

29. "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

- James Baldwin.

30. "Find someone who has a life that you want and figure out how they got it. Read books, pick your role models wisely. Find out what they did and do it."

- Lana Del Rey.

Inspiring Role Model Quotes

Here are some inspiring role model quotes for you to feel great and get inspired.

31. "I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world."

-  Meryl Streep.

32. "I don’t want to be a supermodel; I want to be a role model."

-  Queen Latifah.

33. "The only people you have to look out for in life are the people that don't care about anything or anyone. These are the people that end up teaching your children."

- Shannon L. Alder.

34. "Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes."

- Liza Wiemer.

35. "Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach."

-  Rosabeth Moss Kantor.

36. "When you have lived your individual life in your own adventurous way and then look back upon its course, you will find that you have lived a model human life, after all."

-  Joseph Campbell.

37. "Exemplary role models believe in the power of good — not what’s good for them but rather, what’s good for others."

- Frank Sonnenberg.

38. "Don’t think for a moment that there’s nothing to be learned from the people who’ve failed us."

- Craig D. Lounsbrough.

39. "For some of the greatest lessons that we’ve been granted are from those who showed us how ‘not’ to do something."

- Craig D. Lounsbrough.

40. "If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person's life in a positive light, and that's what I want to do. That's what it's all about."

- Tiger Woods.

41. "I think a role model is a mentor - someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them."

- Denzel Washington.

42. "I know that being seen as a role model means taking responsibility for all my actions. I am human, and of course, sometimes I make mistakes."

- Jennifer Lopez.

43. "I promise that when I fall, I get back up."

- Jennifer Lopez.

44. "I'm not paid to be a role model, parents should be role models."

- Charles Barkley.

45. "For no-one is as important, potentially powerful and as key in your life and world as you."

- Rasheed Ogunlaru.

46. "Role modelling is the most basic responsibility of parents."

- Stephen R. Covey.

47. "Parents are handling life's scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children's lives."

- Stephen R. Covey.

48. "Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means."

- Albert Einstein.

49. "Example is leadership."

- Albert Schweitzer.

50. "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth."

- Khalil Gibran.

51. "You are in charge of your feelings, beliefs, and actions."

- Eric Allenbaugh.

52. "You teach others how to behave toward you. While you cannot change other people, you can influence them through your own behaviours and actions."

- Eric Allenbaugh.

53. "By being a living role model of what you want to receive from others, you create more of what you want in your life."

- Eric Allenbaugh.

54. "The best way to teach children restraint and generosity is to be a model of those qualities yourself."

- Lawrence Balter.

55. "Being is the great explainer."

- Henry David Thoreau.

56. "Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public."

- Epictetus.

57. "Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."

- Robert Fulghum.

58. "We do not imitate but are a model to others."

- Pericles.

59. "As a parent, you will often serve as an inadvertent example to your child. A child will model himself after you in many areas."

- Lawrence Balter.

60. "How you deal with frustration, settle disagreements and cope with not being able to have the things that you want, to name just three."

- Lawrence Balter.

Top Role Model Quotes

Here are some top role model quotes for you to read and feel inspired by.

61. "One of the most important things we adults can do for young children is to model the kind of person we would like them to be."

- Carol B. Hillman.

62. "Family is the first school for young children, and parents are powerful models."

- Alice Sterling Honig.

63. "You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."

- Oliver Goldsmith.

64. "People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves."

- Tyron Edwards.

65. "I believe that as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it."

- Ann Richards.

66. "Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints in the sands of time."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

67. "Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves."

- Frederick Smith.

68. "I will pick out the good points of one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself."

- Confucius.

69. "Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity."

- Warren Bennis.

70. "Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary."

- Warren Bennis.

71. "To achieve your goal you have to get into the character of a winner."

- Dr. Anil Kr Sinha.

72. "Observe people who are confident and successful and try to emulate them in your life."

- Dr. Anil Kr Sinha.

73. "If God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it."

- Jeanette Winterson.

74. "The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers."

- Andrew Shue.

75. "Example is the best precept."

- Aesop.

76. "It’s good to have female or minority role models."

- Condoleezza Rice.

77. "A role model should be like the light at the end of a tunnel, guiding you when you are lost."

- Cristina Imre.

78. "Always do your best in whatever you do."

- Charles F. Bolden.

79. "Set goals and seek challenges."

- Charles F. Bolden.

80. "Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate."

- Unknown*.

The Best Role Models Quotes For Kids

Here are a few great role model quotes for kids for you to ponder upon.

81. "Instruction is good for a child but an example is worth more."

- Alexandre Dumas.

82. "Make yourself your role model."

- Michael Bassey Johnson.

83. "Your actions can be your best role model."

- Unknown*.

84. "We all need role models in different seasons."

- Sue Detweiler.

85. "You are the combination of the five people you look up to."

- Mike Yanek.

86. "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions."

- Mark Twain.

87. "People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy."

- Oliver Goldsmith.

88. "Faith Hill is a big role model."

- Taylor Swift.

89. "My mom was always my biggest teacher, my inspiration, my role model."

- Christie Brinkley.

90. "I stay away from the title of 'role model.' I want to be a more realistic role model."

- Melanie Martinez.

91. "My biggest thing about being a role model is whatever I'm preaching, I'm practicing."

- Gigi Hadid.

92. "I will follow my father's footsteps by doing what is right, and God will take care of the rest."

- Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

93. "Optimism is the opium of the people."

- Milan Kundera.

94. "One man with courage makes a majority."

- Andrew Jackson.

95. "Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world."

- Immanuel Kant.

96. "I want to play positive role models - women who mean something to other women."

- Agyness Deyn.

97. "You need to be the role model that your character intends you to be."

- Alex Newell.

98. "Every boy needs a role model that he can be proud of and talk about to the other kids in the playground."

- Athol Fugard.

99. "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts."

- John Wooden.

100. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."

- John C. Maxwell.

101. "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

- John F. Kennedy.

102. "A role model can teach you to love and respect yourself."

- Tionne Watkins.

103. "Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you."

- John Wooden.

104. "Integrity makes you the best role model."

- Unknown*.

105. "I think everyone needs to be a role model, period."

- Barry Bonds.

106. "Make each day your masterpiece."

- John Wooden.

107. "Being a positive person is really important to be a positive role model."

- Unknown*.

108. "Becoming a dad means you have to be a role model for your son and be someone he can look up to."

- Wayne Rooney.

109. "The things women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it."

- Roseanne Barr.

110. "People need role models. Are you up to the job?."

- Frank Sonnenberg.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 110 role model quotes for kids to look up to, then why not look at these thoughtful quotes or strong mom quotes too?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at hello@kidadl.com.

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Written by Writvik Gupta

Writvik Gupta picture

Writvik Gupta

A professional content writer hailing from Kolkata, India, with extensive experience in the corporate sector, Writvik Gupta has worked with several reputed companies, including ITC WelcomHotel Jodhpur, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Aryan Imaging, and Eduquity. He also serves as a consultant for a startup based in Bangalore. With a passion for the outdoors, Writvik enjoys trekking and traveling to remote destinations. He also has a keen interest in exploring various cuisines and regularly volunteers for social causes.

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