50 Back-to-School Quotes to Inspire a Year of Learning

Need a good quote for the back-to-school season? We've got all the inspirational words you need for the start of a great year.

Published July 25, 2023
Multi-ethnic group of Latin American college students smiling

There's a certain new beginning we all sense at the start of a new school year. The start of school is an exciting time, and these back-to-school quotes capture all the motivational thoughts you might need to approach the year with confidence.

Have a laugh before the first bell rings and walk the halls with all the hope you need for a great school year with these quotes for the back-to-school season.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are original and written by LoveToKnow staff.

Inspirational Back-to-School Quotes for a Hopeful New Year

With summer fading away, we all need a little inspiration to help us see the hope in the new school year ahead. You'll find all the reasons why you or your kiddos can be hopeful at the start of this school year with these inspiring quotes.

Inspirational Back to School Quotes for a Hopeful New Year
  • A new school year is a beacon of the hope we have for the future.
  • Going back to school is going forward into new experiences that will shape your generation.
  • Sending your child back to school may be bittersweet, but the moments you miss them may be the moments of learning they need most.
  • Back to school is only as sad as we make it. Learning, whether in the classroom or in the fun of summer, is always worth celebrating.
  • Back to school is not just the mark of a new year, but the mark of a new chapter of life in your growing book.
  • One school year may feel like a lifetime. Maybe that's because learning offers us more understanding of life itself.
  • It's hard to say which is more bittersweet: the goodbye we wave to summer, or the hello we wave to the unknown year ahead.
  • It's not only the knowledge you'll build in a new school year. It's also friendship and a future you will build upon.
  • You won't do everything perfectly this year. But it's in the imperfection you'll discover your passions.

Funny Back-to-School Quotes for a Lighthearted Start

We get it -- sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. But these back-to-school quotes will give you a few laughs to chase away those end-of -summer blues.

  • Nothing says 'back to school' like the smell of glue and the sound of new sneakers in the hallway.
  • Back to school: the one week of the school year you get your sandwich cut into cute shapes before mom gives up for the year.
  • Time to spend the first few weeks of school reviewing all the things you forgot over the summer.
  • You know it's time to go back to school when you've finally discovered the boredom of summer.
  • Back to school? How about back to bed? Back to the pool? Back to anything but school.
  • Alexa, move back to school to next year.
  • Is there an extra credit assignment available to extend the summer?

Back-to-School Sayings to Welcome a New Year

A warm welcome is in order for students, teachers, and parents as a new school year kicks off. These quotes invite everyone to an exciting new year of learning together, in and out of the classroom.

Back to School Quotes to Welcome a New Year
  • Welcome to another year of lessons and tests, inside and outside of the classroom.
  • Time to sharpen your pencils so we can sharpen your minds.
  • We welcome you back with open arms, in hopes that you leave this school year with open minds.
  • There are hundreds of stories to be told, among teachers and students alike, all starting with the first bell of the school year.
  • Your best year awaits, if you're willing to take a chance on yourself.
  • If you thought summer was unforgettable, wait until you discover all the new things this year holds.

Motivational Back-to-School Quotes for a Positive Start

  • Back to school isn't the end of summer fun, it's the beginning of another year of growth.
  • A new school year is a chance to learn more than facts. It's a chance to learn how to love learning, how to seek it out, and how to apply that knowledge to life.
  • A new school year is just as exciting -- and important -- as the exhilarating final day of classes. For one cannot exist without the other.
  • What if going back to school held as much possibility, fun, and memories as the first day of summer?
  • Our attitude around the first day of school changes quite a bit when we view education as a ticket to the future, rather than a sentence to the responsibilities of the present.
  • Everyone gets the same books; it's up to you to open them and absorb what they have to say.
  • Your own determination, not your ability or intellect, is what sets you apart in the classroom.
  • Learning is not only for the skilled or gifted, it's for all who are willing to try.

Sayings to Encourage a Great School Year

A great school year starts with you. These quotes will help you feel inspired for a successful year and help you inspire those around you as well.

Quotes to Encourage a Great School Year
  • A great school year takes only learning, growing, and laughing as often as possible.
  • The wonders of a great school year are often hidden in the middle of its toughest lessons.
  • Your great school year starts with a determination to rise to every challenge set before you, in and out of the classroom.
  • The only thing you need for a successful school year is a willingness to entertain all of the ideas you've not yet considered.
  • What's the most important thing you'll need for the year ahead? Presence. Showing up, physically and mentally, is the first step toward success.
  • Good grades, social status, and a year of no struggle is not what makes a successful school year. It's coming to the end of the year knowing something more and being a better version of yourself than the year before.
  • There's a whole new you waiting in the small moments this year holds.
  • Take some risks, try something new, and discover a side of yourself you've never known before.

Back-to-School Quotes for Teachers

A great school year isn't even attainable without the teachers who make it possible. If you need encouragement yourself, or wish to offer it to a teacher you know, these quotes might help offer appreciation and support at the same time.

  • Here's to another year of early mornings, late nights, and changing lives.
  • Teachers may plan for a new year of education, but they cannot plan for all the small moments that will change them over the year.
  • Back to school is about planning lessons and expecting all the lessons we cannot plan.
  • For teachers, going back to school is about looking back on the minds already shaped to be inspired to shape the new ones waiting for that same guidance.
  • The goal of a teacher at the start of a new year is to teach children about academics, the world, and themselves.
  • Let us dedicate this year to sending our classroom home with more than just homework and essays.
  • A back-to-school goal for teachers should be to create open minds within their students, rather than create a classroom of minds containing all the same memorized information.
  • For teachers, a new school year is the lighting of the hero's beacon, calling them back to their post.

Famous Quotes Perfect for the Back-to-School Season

Many wise people have shared inspirational thoughts on a coming school year and we would be doing you a great disservice if we didn't share a few of them. Look to these famous back-to-school quotes to inspire your first days back in the routine.

Famous Back to School Quote
  • "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." - Oh, The Places You'll Go, Dr. Seuss
  • "School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside." - Dan Valentine
  • "Don't try so hard to fit in, and certainly don't try so hard to be different…just try hard to be you." - Zendaya
  • "Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Go Back to School Determined to Have a Successful Year

Whether you're a parent, teacher, or a student of any age, there may be a lot of emotions tied to the back-to-school season. But you can control your own determination to make it as positive an experience as you can. A motivating quote might be the start of that determination.

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50 Back-to-School Quotes to Inspire a Year of Learning