118 College Quotes on Education to Inspire and Motivate Students

College offers possibilities for education, networking and career advancement.

College can be a difficult and intimidating experience for some but it can also be very rewarding as well.

We’ve compiled quotes about college education and the experience to help, encourage and inspire students during this exciting phase of their life.

college

These are quotes from successful people who utilized their knowledge to accomplish great things and make a difference in the world.


Top 10 College Quotes

college-quotes

College is like a fountain of knowledge and the students are there to drink. ~ Chuck Palahniuk.

college-quotes

No, sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning. ~ Donovan Livingston.

college-quotes-sayings

College is the reward for surviving high school. ~ Judd Apatow.

college-quotes-sayings-captions

Education is the movement from darkness to light. ~ Allan Bloom.

famous-college-quotes-sayings-captions

You don’t get what you wish for. You get what you work for. ~ Daniel Milstein.

top-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude. ~ Ralph Marston.

powerful-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Self-discipline is the magic power that makes you virtually unstoppable. ~ Dan Kennedy

great-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose. ~ G.K. Nielson.

profound-college-quotes-sayings-captions

College inspired me to think differently. It’s like no other time in your life. ~ Lari Oleynik.

best-college-quotes-sayings-captions

A college education shows a man how little other people know. ~ Thomas Chandler Haliburton.

Also Read: 76 Education Quotes on the Power of Learning and 99 Learning Quotes and Sayings to Inspire You

Famous College Quotes

inspiring-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom. ~ Oprah Winfrey.

best-college-quotes

The best way to predict your future is to create it. ~ Abraham Lincoln.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life. ~ Plato.

inspirational-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Months are different in college, especially freshman year. Too much happens. Every freshman month equals six regular months – they’re like dog months. ~ Rainbow Rowell.

strong-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you. ~ John Green.

There is no secret to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. ~ General Colin Powell.

positive-college-quotes-sayings-captions

The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it from you. ~ B.B. King.

Many kids come out of college, they have a credit card and a diploma. They don’t know how to buy a house or a car or health insurance or life insurance. They do not know basic microeconomics. ~ Jesse Jackson.

Best College Quotes

wise-college-quotes-sayings-captions

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. ~ Joseph Stalin.

top-college-quotes

College is a place to keep warm between high school and an early marriage. ~ George Gobe.

In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that. ~ Mary Oliver.

motivational-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree. ~ Marian Wright Edelman.

College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night? ~ David Wood.

meaningful-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Educating yourself does not mean you were stupid in the first place, it means that you are intelligent enough to know that there is plenty left to learn. ~ Melanie Joy.

My favorite college experience was probably leaving college. ~ Marshawn Lynch.

thought-provoking-college-quotes-sayings-captions

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney.

What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at once. ~ Kurt Vonnegut.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. ~ Les Brown.

famous-college-quotes

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation. ~ Brigham Young.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. ~ General Colin Powell.

breath-taking-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Going to college made me realize you have to have real spaces of privacy, and you have to establish those early. ~ Cole Sprouse.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead. ~ Aristotle.

beautiful-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~ Thomas A. Edison.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. ~ Pele.

popular-college-quotes

The harder it gets the more rewarding it will be. ~ Unknown.

The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means to an education. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

interesting-college-quotes-sayings-captions

The American Dream is one of success, homeownership, college education for one’s children, and have a secure job to provide these and other goals. ~ Leonard Boswell.

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. ~ Malcolm X.

ultimate-college-quotes-sayings-captions

When bright young minds can’t afford college, America pays the price. ~ Arthur Ashe.

Never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. ~ Michelle Obama.

College isn’t the place to go for ideas. ~ Helen Keller.

Powerful College Quotes

motivating-college-quotes-sayings-captions

With the realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world. ~ Dalai Lama.

Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow. Education is neither Eastern nor Western, it is human. ~ Malala Yousafzai.

profound-college-quotes

There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. ~ Zig Ziglar.

Education is the best provision for life’s journey. ~ Aristotle.

It is never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot.

awesome-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Unemployment rates among Americans who never went to college are about double that of those who have a postsecondary education. ~ Bill Gates.

A college education should equip one to entertain three things: a friend, an idea and oneself. ~ Thomas Ehrlich.

The road to success is always under construction. ~ Lily Tomlin.

thoughtful-college-quotes-sayings-captions

You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety. ~ Abraham Maslow.

Inspiring College Quotes

Every young man or woman should weigh the matter well before concluding that a college education is out of the question. ~ Orison Swett Marden.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou.

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed. ~ R.S. Ingersoll.

inspiring-college-quotes

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows. ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer.

If you have four years to complete your college education, do it. ~ Bo Jackson.

You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment. ~ Michelle Obama.

amazing-college-quotes-sayings-captions

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. ~ Jim Rohn.

College has given me the confidence I need to fail. ~ Jarod Klintz.

Profound College Quotes

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. ~ Theodore Roosevelt.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. ~ Aristotle.

great-college-quotes

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. ~ Salvador Dali.

Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community. ~ Adelaide Hoodless.

Discipline is just choosing what you want now and what you want most. ~ Unknown.

The aim of the college, for the individual student, is to eliminate the need in his life for the college; the task is to help him become a self-educating man. ~ George Horace Lorimer.

No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. ~ Demi Lovato.

Just because I don’t have a college degree doesn’t mean I am not smart! ~ Emma Stone.

The best math lesson we can teach college students this year is to subtract a tuition increase and benefit from the dividends of higher education. ~ Jodi Rell.

Thought-Provoking College Quotes

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. ~ Bruce Lee.

powerful-college-quotes

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats.

College was especially sweet because of the positive, hopeful atmosphere of a college campus. ~ Jerry Kramer.

I got a wonderful college education. I went to Harvard. In those four years, I accumulated a lot of knowledge, but I also created a kind of habit of learning that has stayed with me my whole life. ~ John Lithgow.

It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. ~ Jillian Michaels.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. ~ Benjamin Franklin.

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated. ~ Al McGuire.

Everything’s always ending. But everything’s always beginning, too. ~ Patrick Ness.

One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it’s very complex, it’s very profound. ~ Dennis Prager.

Opportunities don’t happen. You create them. ~ Chris Grosser.

Getting through high school and college was one of my greatest achievements. ~ Ann Bancroft.

Inspirational College Quotes

Education doesn’t cease when you leave college or leave the university. Education is a lifetime process. ~ Jim Rohn.

deep-college-quotes

When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world. ~ Elon Musk.

The path to success is to take massive, determined action. ~ Tony Robbins.

Free speech is the foundation of an open and liberal democracy from college campuses to the White House. ~ Hasan Minhaj.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. ~ C. S. Lewis.

Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. ~ W. Clement Stone.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ~ Nelson Mandela.

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library. ~ Shelby Foote.

A college degree is not a sign of a finished product but an indication a person is prepared for life. ~ Reverend Edward A. Malloy.

Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin.

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. ~ Will Rogers.

Positive College Quotes

All of my friends who have younger siblings who are going to college or high school – my number one piece of advice is: You should learn how to program. ~ Mark Zuckerberg.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about. ~ J. Cole.

inspirational-college-quotes

Focus on doing the right things instead of a bunch of things. ~ Mike Krieger.

You can lead a boy to college but you can’t make him think. ~ Elber Hubbard.

My college experience was like everyone else’s. I learned a lot. I gained a new perspective on the world and on people that I’m so thankful and appreciative for. ~ Kyle Carpenter.

A college degree is not a sign that one is a finished product but an indication a person is prepared for life. ~ Edward A Malloy.

College is a refuge from hasty judgment. ~ Robert Frost.

An investment in education is an investment in our future. ~ David Wasinger.

It is not hard for me to remember when I was in college. I loved many things about college life: I loved learning. I loved the comradery. And I loved football. ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin.

The same independence that got me into trouble in high school got me praise in college. ~ Alan Dershowitz.

The chief value in going to college is that it’s the only way to learn it really doesn’t matter. ~ George Edwin Howes.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. ~ Anatole France.

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library. ~ Frank Zappa.

Wise College Quotes

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. ~ Benjamin Franklin.

Work hard, nap hard. ~ Demi Lovato.

I think a college education is important no matter what you do in life. ~ Phil Mickelson.

College ain’t so much where you been as how you talk when you get back. ~ Ossie Davis.

Definition of a college professor: someone who talks in other people’s sleep. ~ W.H. Auden.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one. ~ William James.

motivational-college-quotes

Struggling to decide what to do after graduation is… a sort of rite of passage to the next phase of your life. ~ Gloria Davidson.

I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years. ~ Ray Bradbury.

In my bright, utopian future world, they will hand out college educations like cups of water at the end of the L.A. Marathon. ~ Henry Rollins.

My college years are a blur. ~ Robert Ben Garant.

College inspired me to think differently. It’s like no other time in your life. ~ Larisa Oleynik.


So these were the 118 top quotes about College and University.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Classroom quotes and Attention Seeker quotes.


References and Sources:

  1. 40+ College Life Quotes to Get You Through the School Year
  2. 75 Best Motivational and Inspirational Quotes For College Students
  3. 52 Inspirational Quotes for College Students
Share with others!
Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar