100 Best Funny Teacher Quotes To Make Them Smile

Supriya Jain
Dec 12, 2023 By Supriya Jain
Originally Published on Mar 09, 2021
Edited by Luca Demetriou
Teacher writing in chalk board
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Age: 0-99
Read time: 12.7 Min

Teachers have always been an essential part of our lives, they have made a difference to our ideas and lives.

We still wish to relive the time spent with them, full of endless fun and learning. Teachers are those who treat us as their own children, they are the ones who don’t consider you someone as a student but rather as mentees, partners in class crime! They nourish your ideas and personalities for a better future.

Everyone had that one teacher in their life who brought out some significant life-changing moments and had all the fun with them as their best friends, too. Here are the 100 best funny teacher quotes to make them smile by bringing out nostalgic memories back.

If you like this article, do not forget to check out end of school quotes and teacher retirement quotes.

Funny Teacher Quotes For The Kid In You

Funny teacher quotes as well as funny teacher appreciation quotes are highly enjoyed by students, people and the whole class. Read on for some of the best funny quotes about teachers as well as interesting teacher quotes for your thoughts.

A female teacher is teaching maths to kids

1. “A policeman pulled me over and asked me for my papers.  I gladly gave him all of my students’ essays to grade and drove off.”

- Heidi McDonald.

2. “A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.”

- D. Martin.

3. “Being a new teacher is like trying to fly an airplane while building it.”

- Rick Smith.

4. “Sunday is a teacher’s day of rest: the rest of the laundry, the rest of the housework, and grade the rest of the papers.”

- Heidi McDonald.

5. “A very wise old teacher once said: I consider a day’s teaching wasted if we do not all have one hearty laugh.”

- Gilbert Highet.

6. “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.”

- Bob Talbert.

7. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

- Benjamin Franklin.

8. “Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.’

- Anatole France.

9. “Education is not the filling of a pot but the lighting of a fire.”

- W.B. Yeats.

10. “Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”

- Jacques Barzun.

11. “A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”

- Thomas Carruthers.

12. “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”

- Robert Frost.

13. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

- Albert Einstein.

14. “A gifted teacher is not only prepared to meet the needs of today’s child but is also prepared to foresee the hopes and dreams in every child’s future.”

- Robert John Meehan.

15. “Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher that will be the biggest honor for me.”

- P. J. Abdul Kalam.

16. “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”

- Aristotle.

17. “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

18. “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.”

- Brad Henry.

19. “Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.”

- Shah Rukh Khan.

20. “Of all the hard jobs around, one of the hardest is being a good teacher.”

- Maggie Gallagher.

21. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

- Henry Adams.

Incredibly Funny Teacher Quotes For Reading

When it comes to funny quotes about teaching, you have the option of enjoying funny quotes about school as well as funny quotes for teachers. Read on for some of the best funny teacher quotes that all people will enjoy reading.

22. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

- William Arthur Ward.

23. “Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.”

- Sidney J. Harris.

24. “In an effective classroom, students should not only know what they are doing, but they should also know why and how.”

- Harry Wong.

25. “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.”

- Socrates.

26. “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.”

- Colleen Wilcox.

27. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

- John Dewey.

28. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.”

- Solomon Ortiz.

29. “Your best teacher is your last mistake.”

- Ralph Nader.

30. “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

- Harry S. Truman.

31. “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”

- Cynthia Ozick.

32. “Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that’s because you’re a teacher.”

- Aaron Bacall.

33. “Education is what survives when what has been learned is forgotten.”

- BF Skinner.

34. “No one should teach who is not in love with teaching.”

- Margaret Elizabeth Sangster.

35. “Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible. No one can do more.”

- Loris Malaguzzi.

36. “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

- Malcolm X.

37. “Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.”

- Abraham Lincoln.

38. “One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”

- Malala Yousafzai.

39. “Intelligence plus character– that is the goal of true education.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

40. “Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon.”

- Ann Liberman.

41. “When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.”

- Dalai Lama.

42. “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.”

- Claus Moser.

43. “Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.”

- Abigail Adams.

44. “He, who opens a school door, closes a prison.”

- Victor Hugo.

45. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”

- Confucius.

Funny Teacher Sayings For School Students

Along with funny teacher sayings and quotes, students do enjoy teacher memes as well. Here are some of the most interesting funny preschool teacher quotes along with funny school quotes for every kid out there, whether you have a job now or still at school with a teacher.

46. “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”

- Maya Angelou.

47. “I teach high school math. I sell a product to a market that doesn’t want it, but is forced by law to buy it.”

— Dan Meyer

48. “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.”

- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

49. “Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.”

- Charles Kuralt.

50. “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”

- Khalil Gibran.

51. “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, the children are now working as if I did not exist.”

- Maria Montessori.

52. “I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.”

- Booker T. Washington.

53. “People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved.”

- Anne Sullivan.

54. “What a block of marble is to a sculptor a ready mind is to a teacher.”

- Joseph Addison.

55. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.”

- Zig Ziglar.

56. “Great teachers are passionate about what they teach and respectful of those they teach.”

- Michael Josephson.

57. “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

- Mark Van Doren.

58. “They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don’t know it.”

- Nicholas Sparks.

59. “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterward.”

- Anatole France.

60. “In learning, you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn.”

- Phil Collins.

61. “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.”

- Michael Morpurgo.

Amazing Funny Teacher Quotes For School

Teachers quotes have the tendency of tickling the students' funny bone. Here are some of the extremely funny teacher quotes along with funny teacher retirement quotes to enrich your thoughts and to give you a hearty laugh.  

62. “We must never forget our teachers, our lecturers, and our mentors. In their individual capacities have contributed to our academic, professional and personal development.”

- Lailah Gifty Akita.

63. “A great teacher plants the seeds of greatness in the minds of future generations.”

- Debasish Mridha.

64. “Great teachers are great to tour guides - they show us the sights, the sounds, the beauty, the pain, and the ones who made a difference.”

- Bert McCoy.

65. “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

- Margaret Mead.

66. “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

- Lady Bird Johnson.

67. “Every child should have a caring adult in their lives. And that’s not always a biological parent or family member. It may be a friend or neighbor. Often times it is a teacher.”

- Joe Manchin.

68. “Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.”

- Andy Rooney.

69. “The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”

- Robert M. Hutchins.

70. “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”

- B.B. King.

71. “Let me love you a little more before you’re not little anymore.”

- Michelle Thevenot.

72. “Children don’t say, ‘I had a hard day. Can we talk?’ They say, ‘Will you play with me?”

- Lawrence Cohen.

73. “Strong teachers don’t teach content: Google has content. Strong teaching connects learning in ways that inspire kids to learn more and strive for greatness.”

- Ed Jensen.

74. “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”

- Bill Gates.

75. “Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.”

- Joyce Meyer.

76. “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. 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.

77. “The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”

- Edward Buller-Lyton.

78. “When mentors are well-selected, well-trained and given the time to work intensively with new teachers, they not only help average teachers become good, but good teachers become great.”

- Dara Barlin.

79. “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.”

- Alexander The Great.

Popular Funny Teacher Quotes Perfect For A Laugh

Funny teacher quotes are enjoyed by people all over the world. Funny teacher quotes offer nothing but some harmless fun for students and bring a smile to their face while reading.

Read on for some of the most interesting funny teacher quotes and enjoy a great laugh with some great ideas on what to sat to your friends, about school and all things teaching related.

80. “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes.”

- Guy Kawasaki.

81. “When you study great teachers…you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.”

- William Glasser.

82. “Wherever you find something extraordinary, you’ll find the fingerprints of a great teacher.”

- Arne Duncan.

83. “Administrators need to shift from being controllers to enablers, so as to liberate the energies and talents of the teachers.”

- Steve Denning.

84. “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.”

- Unknown*.

85. “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.”

- Dan Rather.

86. “True. It is an exacting and exhausting business, this damming up the flood of human potentialities.”

- George Leonard.

87. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”

- Lily Tomlin.

88. “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.”

- Roger Lewin.

89. “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”

- James Baldwin.

90. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

- Albert Schweitzer.

91. “A teacher is one who helps others and influences lives forever.”

- Catherine Pulsifer.

92. “A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.”

- Bruce Lee.

93. “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.”

- Scott Hayden.

94. “What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: it isn’t someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.”

- Paulo Coelho.

95. “A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank...but the world may be a better place because I made a difference in the life of a child.”

- Forest Witcraft.

96. “A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.”

- Darwin D. Martin.

97. “Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.”

- Sidney Hook.

98. “The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence.  He inspires self-distrust.  He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him.  He will have no disciple.”

- Amos Bronson Alcott.

99. “A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism.”

- Louis A. Berman.

100. “We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family.  Then we expect them to educate our children.”

- John Sculley.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for funny teacher quotes, then why not take a look at middle school quotes or homeschool quotes.

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Written by Supriya Jain

Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

Supriya Jain picture

Supriya JainBachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

As a skilled member of the Kidadl team, Shruti brings extensive experience and expertise in professional content writing. With a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Punjab University and an MBA in Business Administration from IMT Nagpur, Shruti has worked in diverse roles such as sales intern, content writer, executive trainee, and business development consultant. Her exceptional writing skills cover a wide range of areas, including SOP, SEO, B2B/B2C, and academic content.

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