Inspirational Quotations for Adult Students

"It’s not that I’m so smart...": Albert Einstein

"It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is said to be the author of this quote that inspires persistence, but we don't have a date or a source.

Stay with your studies. Success is very often right around the corner.

"The important thing is to not stop questioning..": Albert Einstein

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

This quote, also attributed to Albert Einstein, appeared in an article by William Miller in the May 2, 1955 edition of LIFE magazine.

Related: The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner on the loss of curiosity and our ability to ask the right questions.

"The one real object of education...": Bishop Mandell Creighton

"The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions."

This quote, which also encourages questioning, is attributed to Bishop Mandell Creighton, a British historian who lived 1843-1901.

"All men who have turned out worth anything...": Sir Walter Scott

"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education."

Sir Walter Scott wrote that in a letter to J.G. Lockhart in 1830.

Take control of your own destiny.

"Beholding the bright countenance of truth...": John Milton

"Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies."

This is from John Milton in "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates."

Wishing you delightful studies filled with the "bright countenance of truth."

"O! this learning...": William Shakespeare

"O! this learning, what a thing it is."

This wonderful exclamation is from William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew."

O! indeed.

"Education is not filling a pail...": Yeats or Heraclitus?

"Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire."

You will find this quote attributed with variations to both William Butler Yeats and Heraclitus. The pail is sometimes a bucket. The "lighting of a fire" is sometimes the "igniting of a flame."

The form most often attributed to Heraclitus goes like this, "Education has nothing to do with filling a pail, rather it has everything to do with igniting a flame."

We don't have a source for either, which is the problem. Heraclitus, however, was a Greek philosopher who lived about 500 BCE. Yeats was born in 1865. My bet is on Heraclitus as the correct source.

"...the education of adults of every age?": Erich Fromm

"Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?

Erich Fromm was a psychoanalyst, humanist, and social psychologist who lived 1900-1980. More information about him is available at the International Fromm Society.

"...you, too, can be president of the United States.": George W. Bush

"To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States."

This is from George W. Bush's now famous commencement address at his alma mater, Yale University, on May 21, 2001.

"It is the mark of an educated mind...": Aristotle

 "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Aristotle said that. He lived 384BCE to 322BCE.

With an open mind, you can consider new ideas without making them your own. They flow in, are entertained, and they flow out. You decide whether or not the thought is worthy of acceptance.

As a writer, I am acutely aware that not everything in print is accurate or correct. Be discriminating as you learn.

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind...": Malcolm S. Forbes

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

Malcolm S. Forbes lived 1919-1990. He published Forbes Magazine from 1957 until his death. This quotation is said to have come from his magazine, but I do not have the specific issue.

I love the idea that the opposite of an empty mind is not a full one, but one that is open.

"Man's mind, once stretched...": Oliver Wendell Holmes

 "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

This quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes is especially lovely because it creates the image that an open mind doesn't have anything to do with the size of a brain. An open mind is limitless.

"The highest result of education...": Helen Keller

"The highest result of education is tolerance."

This is from Helen Keller's 1903 essay, Optimism. She continues:

"Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage, the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principal of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think."

The emphasis is mine. In my mind, Keller is saying that an open mind is a tolerant mind, a discriminating mind that can see the best in people, even when it is different.

Keller lived 1880 to 1968.

"When the student is ready...": Buddhist Proverb

 "When the student is ready, the master appears."

Related from the teacher's point of view: 5 Principles of Teaching Adults

"Always walk through life...": Vernon Howard

 "Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will."

Vernon Howard (1918-1992) was an American author and the founder of the New Life Foundation, a spiritual organization.

I include this quotation with the others about open minds because walking through the world ready for new learning indicates that your mind is open. Your teacher is sure to appear!