Looking for ways to encourage hard work and personal growth in the classroom? Try sharing some quotes about growth mindset with your students. As the name suggests, growth mindset encourages looking inward and recognizes that challenges and obstacles help you grow. When you fall, you get back up and try again. Especially in an age when students constantly see “perfection” on social media, it’s important to remind them that failures are normal and that they present an opportunity for improvement. While fostering a growth mindset isn’t the only way to help students succeed, sharing these quotes to motivate your students may be a good place to start!
Our Favorite Growth Mindset Quotes
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
“With the right mindset, we can’t lose—we either practice what we’ve learned or we learn what we need to practice.” – Noura
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill
“Look for the good in every situation, seek the valuable lesson in every setback, look for the solution to every problem. Think and talk continually about your goals.” – Brian Tracy
“You can achieve anything you want in life if you have the courage to dream it, the intelligence to make a realistic plan, and the will to see that plan through to the end. – Sidney A. Friedman
“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of being.” – John Wooden
“Developing a growth mindset is really a journey. It’s a lifelong journey of monitoring your trigger points and trying to approach things in a more growth mindset way of taking on challenges, sticking to them, and learning from them.” – Carol Dweck
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.’” – Audrey Hepburn
“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn
“Live as is if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up.” – Carol Dweck
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.” – Carol Dweck
“Improve by 1% a day, and in just 70 days, you’re twice as good.” – Alan Weiss
“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo
“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Success isn’t always about ‘greatness.’ It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles Swindoll
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did.” – Mark Twain
“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.” – Wallace Wattles
“Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Sherman Finesilver
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson
“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” – Molière
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
“Mistakes aren’t mistakes, they are lessons!” – Israelmore Ayivor
“If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time for great personal growth ahead.” – Oswald Chambers
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton
“Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. – Unknown
“Remember, you were created to be a champion and ready for any battle.” – Pernell Stoney
“Work hard now. Don’t wait. If you work hard enough, you’ll be given what you deserve.” – Shaquille O’Neal
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock
“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.” – Thomas H. Palmer
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” – J.M. Barrie
“You can have it all. Just not all at once.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” – A.A. Milne
“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford
“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.” – Vernon Howard
“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark
“If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything. Success is not coming to you. You must come get it.” – Marva Collins
“Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you who you are.” – Beyoncé
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
“Don’t give up at halftime. Concentrate on winning the second half.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant
“The more you trust your intuition, the more empowered you become, the stronger you become, and the happier you become.” – Gisele Bundchen
“Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.” – Norman Vincent Peale
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
“Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.” – Richard Bach
“Sometimes some people and some situations deserve a second chance.” – Germany Kent
“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” – Arnold Palmer
“Sometimes, instead of climbing over the barricades, you’ve got to walk around them.” – Bono
“Your thoughts don’t make you who you are, your actions do. Be better than your thoughts.” – Bucky Buckbinder
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson
“If at first, you don’t succeed, you’re normal.” – Kid President
“Everything is figureoutable.” – Marie Forleo
“After every game or practice, if you walk off the field knowing that you gave everything you had, you will always be a winner.” – Mia Hamm
“DNA has nothing to do with success. Turn your genes into overalls and get to work.” – Darren Hardy
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
“Life is about being and becoming, not having and getting.” – Stephanie Seabrook Hedgepath
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
“Don’t tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work.” – Arthur Rubenstein
“You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad
“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” – Steve Maraboli
Like these growth mindset quotes? Check out these motivational quotes for students too!
Plus, come share your favorite growth mindset quotes in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook!
