Motivational Quotes for Student Excellence: 50 Powerful [FREE] Inspiration Templates (2024)

Browse our list of inspirational quotes for students to combat procrastination, rediscover your motivation for learning, and keep going after any setbacks. We’ve gathered fifty powerful quotes to get you back on track when you’re struggling during your studies.

Explore our inspiring quotes for students and find the words that move you. All of our designs are downloadable for you to print and pin to your wall. Use these motivational quotes to remind yourself why you chose to go down this path of learning and to provide you with comfort.

Learn what motivates you and choose from our collection to get you studying and reading more while always staying positive.

Motivation to Learn

Sometimes college is overwhelming. Your exams, essays, thesis, and due dates can turn into a heavy workload weighing you down. In these moments, you might ask yourself why you’re doing this to yourself, but don’t forget that you get to study a subject that you’re passionate about. When you enrolled, there was this hunger for learning inside you and all you have to do is find that motivation again.

Use the following quotes to rediscover your love for learning:

Education Prepares You for the Future

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

– Malcolm X

What you learn in college today prepares you for making your own way on the job market in the future. You won’t be able to use everything you learned but you’ll have a great foundation to build on. And don’t underestimate the power of learning soft skills like teamwork, time management, and critical thinking as you work your way through group projects and deadlines.

Be Patient and Take Small Steps

“A little progress each day adds up to big results.”

– Satya Nani

Don’t expect that you’ll be able to take in everything you need to study quickly and without difficulty. Give yourself the time to take small steps and divide big topics into smaller chunks. You’ll learn something new every day, which means you’re making progress every day.

Mastering a Skill Takes Time

“Skill is only developed by hours and hours of work.”

– Usain Bolt

Mastering a skill means putting in the time and effort it takes to become good at something. It’s easy to see a master at work and forget that it took hours of work to get to that level. If you set your mind to it and train or study hard, you can learn any skill you want.

Just Get Started

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

– Walt Disney

Too often we get stuck in a limbo of talking about or dreaming about beginning a project instead of just getting started. It’s the fear of failure that makes us come up with excuses but it’s okay to make mistakes. You’ll never grow if you don’t get started and make mistakes along the way.

What You Learn is Yours Forever

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.”

– B.B. King

What you’re studying today, nobody can take away from you again. Knowledge is a power that stays with you as long as you keep using it. Use this power wisely to grow and become the person you want to be.

Seize the Day

It can be hard to get up in the morning and be fully committed to and motivated for the day ahead. It’s important to have a vision and goals that make you want to get up but it’s hard to determine what they are. Brainstorming andcreating a vision boardcan help you decide what your vision should be to get you motivated.

Here are our inspirational quotes for students to help you follow the motto of ‘Carpe Diem!’:

Start Your Day With Positive Thinking

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”

– Dalai Lama

Starting your day with a positive attitude towards learning and your life of study can be an enormous help to make your day in school or university go smoothly. Just a few minutes of reflection and writing down one positive thought in a gratitude journal every day will gradually form a more positive outlook. You might not see the effects immediately but if you tend to worry, try it and see the difference it can make to your day.

Focus on the Here and Now

“You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re still thinking about yesterday.”

– Charles F. Kettering

Sometimes exams or essays might not go as planned and you find yourself mulling over what you should have done better over and over again. This is a waste of your brainpower and time. Instead of thinking about what you did wrong, write down lessons learned and apply them to your next project. This way, you can move on and make things better next time.

Don’t Keep Waiting for a Better Tomorrow

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

– Anne Frank

Every day you start a new day you get the chance to improve and learn something new. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into a pattern of a better tomorrow when you keep pushing a project or studying for an exam to the following day. To seize the day, see what you can do today to improve your world.

Create Opportunities for Yourself

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

– Milton Berle

It takes courage to follow your own path and generate opportunities for yourself, but there are ways to do so. Always be on the lookout for new opportunities that help you to move your studies along. If you find a topic hard to understand, find a study group to help you or be proactive in going to extra tutorial sessions.

Success Has to Start Somewhere

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”

– Gail Devers

Sometimes all the group projects and exams seem to add up to an unconquerable mountain of workload. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by college work, focus on what you’re getting started with first instead of planning too far into the future. Think about it this way: Anything you’ve accomplished so far, you started somewhere.

Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the arch-nemesis of every student. Usually based on anxiety or fear of failure, procrastination can become a bad habit that students develop over the years. Creating a structure for your studies by spreading out the work with regular breaks helps.

Here are some quotes to combat procrastination and win the fight by being more productive:

Don’t Make Studying Harder Than it Should Be

“Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder.”

– Mason Cooley

This is an important statement for all the students, who tend to pull all-nighters. Frantically trying to get an essay in the night before it’s due only makes your life harder. Instead of procrastinating until the deadline is only a day away, think about how much time you need for research and writing. Then plan to spread it across a few productive afternoons in the library.

Seize Your Opportunity to Shine

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”

– Victor Kiam

If you’re procrastinating, you miss the opportunity to show your best work. Anything that you create that has been well thought out and reviewed before submission will be better than a quickly patched together project or essay. Don’t let procrastination get in the way of your opportunity to shine!

Manage Your Time Wisely

“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

– Edward Young

It happens to the best of us. Instead of working on your group project, studying for your exam, or writing your essay, you decide to watch that show on Netflix or play that game on your console. Suddenly you awake from a haze of procrastination and hours have passed.

You’re not sure where the time went but it’s gone. To avoid procrastination eating your precious time like that, plan your day making sure you achieve a balance between studying and breaks. During breaks, you can enjoy your favorite activities.

Create Healthy Habits to Combat Procrastination

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

– George Washington Carver

Procrastination often comes from a lack of motivation and a fear of failure that leads us to make excuses instead of getting started on work. This is a vicious cycle, as it’s much more likely to fail or make mistakes if you rush a project or essay to hand it in last minute. Fight procrastination with healthy habits that help you to manage your time.

Accept that There Will Be a Learning Curve

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

– Zig Ziglar

Fight the fear of failure with a positive attitude towards your studies. It’s natural to make mistakes when you’re learning something new. Remember that if you’re not getting started you can’t succeed either.

Quotes to Encourage a Positive Mindset

When student life gets tough with exams and due dates piling up, maintaining a positive mindset can be hard. It’s important though to look at the bright side to keep motivated and cultivate good mental health throughout your studies.

We’ve collected some quotes to inspire a positive mindset:

Stay Positive and Good Things Will Happen to You

“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”

– Mary Lou Retton

If you stay positive and surround yourself with friends that cheer you up, you’ll find that happiness won’t be so hard to achieve. Spread positivity and it will be reflected right back at you. Your friends and anyone new you meet at school or university will be happy to have a study buddy with a positive attitude.

Use Positivity to Achieve Your Goals

“Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.”

– Shiv Khera

Make sure you translate your positive thinking into actions to keep moving forward with your studies. Instead of a negative no-can-do attitude switch to a can-do philosophy. Don’t be afraid to try new things! College is for exploring and discovering new skills.

Combat Perfectionism with a Positive Attitude

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

– Arthur Ashe

Don’t get entangled in your inner critic’s judgemental comments. Sometimes you need to let perfectionism go and take a more positive stance of doing the best that you can with the resources you have at your disposal. Not everything you do in school or college will be perfect but you should always be able to say that you did the best you could.

Belief in Yourself

“To be an overachiever you have to be an over-believer.”

– Dabo Swinney

If you’re planning to go beyond expectations in your studies, the first thing you need to do is to believe in yourself that you can. To be successful, let go of your fears and embrace a positive attitude. Know what you’re capable of and have a vision in mind of what it will be like when you achieve your goals.

Strengthen Your Faith in Your Success

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

– Helen Keller

Find things to do that give you confidence outside of your studies. See it as a study break to build up your confidence that will help you to stay optimistic. This can range from activities like making art to regular training sessions to keep fit. The little moments of success you have when you’re doing what you like best give you courage and hope.

Bounce Back from Failure

Getting back on track when your results didn’t go as planned is one of the hardest things you’ll do throughout your school and university career. It’s important to not get disheartened when you had to face a setback. Mistakes are part of the learning curve and help you to improve.

Here are some inspirational quotes to help you when it feels like things aren’t working out for you:

Have Faith and Be Patient When Times Are Hard

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

– Japanese Proverb

No matter how many times you fail, always get straight back up and try again. Trust yourself to succeed eventually. Even if it took you a little longer than usual, you’ll get there. Instead of giving up, find patience within yourself and give yourself the time you need.

Keep Trying New Things

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

– Albert Einstein

Instead of being worried about trying something new, embrace the possibility of failure and focus on enjoying the learning experience. It would be boring to master everything immediately without making a few mistakes on the way that help you improve. If you go into new experiences in college with an open and excited mindset, you’ll be able to shrug off anything that goes wrong.

Move on to Better Opportunities

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been given a no. Only to find that a better, brighter, bigger yes was right around the corner.”

– Arlan Hamilton

Rejection is hard to accept but don’t let one person telling you no get you down. A more interesting project might be waiting for you right around the corner. You’re going to meet many teachers and students throughout your school and university career. Some will agree with you and some won’t but that shouldn’t block you from carving your own path.

Embrace Failure as a Means to Success

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”

– Ariana Huffington

Making the wrong choice sometimes is part of life. Accepting that you’re not perfect and that mistakes happen is the first step towards bouncing back from failure more easily. You’ll come to view your mistakes as just another step on your way to success.

Success Comes at the Prize of Previous Failures

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

–Michael Jordan

If even someone as successful and popular as Michael Jordan admits that he fails over and over again, you can stop being hard on yourself. Everyone fails once in a while. The trick is to get back up again and keep taking steps towards your goals.

Practice Kindness and Self-Care

When you’re caught up in a study marathon, you might forget about taking care of yourself and neglect your relationships. However, self-care is crucial to maintain a good balance between studying and relaxing time. Try to practice one of your hobbies regularly to give yourself some time out and to recharge. Avoid becoming a hermit every time you need to study and use your breaks to talk to friends and family.

We’ve collected some words of wisdom on kindness and self-care for you:

Spread Positivity Through Kindness

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

– Jennifer Dukes Lee

When we rush through our days in the fast-paced world of today, we can sometimes forget to be kind. You might get frustrated with the speed that exams come around or fixated on those deadlines and forget everyone and everything else around you. Combat this unhealthy state of mind by stopping yourself every once in a while and looking around you to notice what’s happening outside of your bubble of study frenzy.

Offer Yourself Kindness

“Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.”

– Christopher Germer

Don’t neglect self-compassion and kindness during your studies. To have the capacity for compassion towards others, you need to be kind to yourself first. To be self-compassionate, offer yourself the same understanding that you would a friend. Know that you’re not alone in this and that many other students face similar issues. This will help shift your perspective and make you feel more connected.

Help Wherever You Can

“Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.”

– Minor Myers Jur

If you’re good at a subject, there’s no better feeling than helping a friend who’s struggling with it. If you’re doing well, you can share some of your good fortunes in this way. Students should stick together and help each other out. It’s not only more fun but helps developing friendships that will last a lifetime.

Use Self-Care to Stay on Track

“Self-discipline is self-caring.”

– M. Scott Peck

Self-care is important to build up resilience for staying disciplined and productive. If you can get rid of your inner critic, you’ll be able to spend more time working on your study goals instead of mulling over what went wrong. Practice self-compassion and don’t get caught up in harsh judgments you might make about yourself.

Developing Self-Compassion Takes Time

“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”

– Stephen Covey

If you’re working on being more compassionate towards yourself, you also have to learn to be patient with yourself. Making peace with your inner critic is not an easy task and takes time. Accept that you’ll learn and grow and you’re well on your way towards greater resilience against whatever life throws at you.

Believe in Yourself and Persevere

Perseverance is deeply rooted in an unwavering belief in yourself. To endure the times when you’re overwhelmed by deadlines and exams, you need to believe that you can get to the finish line. When you’re struggling, take a step back and look at what you’ve accomplished so far. This will give you new energy and a positive outlook. You’ve done it before, so you can do it again!

Here are our inspirational quotes to keep you going:

Trust Yourself to Succeed

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

– Thomas Edison

When it seems like you can’t go any further, the solution to your problem might just be waiting around the corner. So don’t give up and trust that you’ll find a way. You don’t want to risk giving up right before you succeed.

Mindset is Everything

“Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.”

-Venus Williams

If you’re struggling with having faith in yourself and your skills, try pretending that you can do anything you set your mind to. Practice this for a while and observe how your mindset changes. You might find that you have a more positive outlook and start believing in yourself more.

There’s More to You Than Meets the Eye

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

– A.A Milne

Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until life tests you. The pressures of doing well in your degree can be such a test. Look at it as a quest to prove to yourself how strong and smart you are. This way you get to know yourself better and your student life becomes the perfect preparation for your life after graduation.

Endurance Is Key

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.”

– Walter Elliot

If you master perseverance, it’s something that will be with you all your life. It’s about having the will to keep going and taking one step after the other even when the odds aren’t in your favor. Take exams and deadlines one by one instead of getting overwhelmed by what can seem to be a very long journey towards your graduation.

Keep Moving Forward No Matter What Happens

“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”

– Ed Cole

Even when it seems hard to keep going, choose to move forward. You can’t accomplish anything by just stopping and staying where you are. Have faith that you’re trying your best and that you’re studying as hard as you can. Keep moving until you reach your goals.

Inspiration to Read More

Reading is one of the best and most pleasurable things to do to sharpen the mind. It’s more than just learning facts and dates from school books. Books widen your horizon and make you see different perspectives. Reading fosters an understanding of the world that would be hard to achieve otherwise.

We’ve collected a few words of wisdom for times when you’ve forgotten about the benefits and pleasures of reading:

Your Path to Greater Knowledge

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

– Dr. Seuss

Reading means knowledge. With every book you read, you learn and with the help of your imagination, you can go anywhere you like. Reading lets you enter spaces that would otherwise be hard or impossible to travel to like distant countries, fictional worlds, or states of mind.

Use Books to Escape

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”

– Jhumpa Lahiri

Even when you have to read a lot for school or university, don’t forget to pick up a book for yourself as a means of escape every once in a while. Even though it might seem counterintuitive to read even more during your study breaks, it’s refreshing and relaxing to read for pleasure and enter a different world for a while.

Reading Opens Your Mind to New Experiences

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”

– Jim Rohn

Reading fosters a more open mind and takes you beyond knowledge. Rather than just taking in information like a computer, you can gain a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Through empathy with the characters you read about, you get to see different worldviews. This will help you keep an open mind for meeting new people and having new experiences during your studies and the rest of your life.

Tap into the Wisdom of the Past

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.”

– Descartes

A book is your window to the knowledge of the past. Every book is an opportunity to learn from a smart person that you most likely never get a chance to talk to otherwise. Even if they died long ago, their words live on for you to study.

Read Your Way to Success

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”

– Margaret Fuller

Many successful leaders are also avid readers. Applying their knowledge from books directly or indirectly, they paved their way towards success. Even though it can be hard sometimes to motivate yourself for all the reading you have to do throughout your school and university career, it’s essential to read widely to reach your goals.

Motivational Quotes for Graduation

Your big day is just around the corner. After years of hard work, you finally get to celebrate your success with your friends and family. You might have mixed feelings about what lies ahead of you after your graduation and that’s only natural. Remember to stay in the moment and party hard!

Celebrate the bittersweet end of your school career and look hopeful into the future with these quotes:

Get Excited about New Beginnings

“Everything’s always ending. But everything’s always beginning, too.”

– Patrick Ness

Life is full of beginnings and endings and if you hone in on it so is student life. You complete one year of your degree and the next begins. When you graduate, you transition into a different new beginning outside of university. It can be daunting but also exciting. Enjoy every bit of it!

Learning Is for Life

“Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life.”

– Frederick W. Robertson

Even if you’re looking forward to not spending hours studying in the library anymore after graduation, you’ll see that the process of learning never really stops. School and university can prepare you for life in many ways, but life itself will keep teaching you new lessons. That way you’ll keep learning something new every day.

Keep Learning Every Day

“Education is something we have to keep pursuing day after day.”

– Premier Brian Gallant

Enjoy your graduation and have a break, but after that it’s time to keep learning. Even if you think you know a lot, life has a way of throwing new challenges at you. Embrace them! Learning doesn’t end when you step outside your university’s campus for the last time.

Create Your Own Future

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Whether you’re unsure about your plans for the future, or a million ideas are running through your head, don’t just keep thinking about it but take action. Planning is great but at some point, it’s time to get started on forging your own path. If you don’t begin to walk on it, you’ll never know where it will take you.

Be Brave and Be Yourself

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

– E.E. Cummings

When you’ve just graduated, you have a lot of expectations of what’s to come. Whatever challenges pop up next, face them with courage and remember to be yourself. You’ll continue to grow and find out who you truly are.

Lifelong Learning

Even after your graduation, you’ll continue to learn and grow. Your formal education might be completed but the new lessons of life await. Just like throughout school and university, you’ll face challenges, make mistakes, and get back up on your feet again to continue and grow.

We’ve collected some powerful quotes to inspire you on your path of lifelong learning:

Continue to Look for Sparks of Inspiration

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.”

– Plutarch

When you left university, find more time to look at other areas that have always interested you. Even after years of education, your mind won’t be filled up. You’re only getting started. Be sure to keep challenging yourself and finding those sparks of inspiration.

Retain a Childlike Curiosity

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

– Henry Ford

Always remember to stay curious about learning new techniques or gaining new knowledge. Even as you get further away from your formal education in years, retain a childlike curiosity that keeps you young. This stops you from stagnating in your job and you’ll keep growing.

Help to Create a Better World

“Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

Don’t underestimate the power of education when it comes to changing the world. Critical thinking and research to see the grey areas rather than view the world in black and white are crucial skills when you’re looking to improve the world around us. Use this power of yours wisely!

Find Wisdom Through Education

“Wisdom…. comes not from age, but from education and learning.”

– Anton Chekhov

If you want to achieve wisdom in life, you have to keep learning. You can learn from experience as you get older but also make conscious efforts to add to your education. A hunger for learning is essential to finding wisdom.

Do What You Love and Keep Learning

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

Live your life like there’s no tomorrow and don’t hesitate to do what you love. Part of that is also to keep on learning and evolving. If you could live forever, you’d want to keep it exciting, which means that you’ll always have to be on the lookout for learning something new.

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Elisabeth Strasser

​Lizzie is a professional Content Writer. She's been passionate about SEO and content marketing ever since a life-changing internship at a digital marketing agency while completing her BA in English and American Studies.

Having graduated with a Professional Writing MA with distinction, Lizzie set out to gain her copywriting and digital marketing experience in Cork City.

An Austrian with a love for Ireland, Lizzie loves exploring Irish folklore and storytelling. Her favourite DW tools are: