Classroom Quotes

[Kaydene]

Hey guys, I had a look around first to see if I could find a thread with this in it. I had no luck, but if there is one, feel free to merge me!

I run an after-school program and I'm looking to put up quotes from famous people that are inspiring and relevant to kids ages 5th-8th grades. I've got a couple Tolkien ones, some Lewis Carroll, Yoda, etc. I'm basically looking for figures they'd relate to or recognize that have good things to say.

Can you guys help me out?

[drew]

I'm not your bloody Berek!

-Not sure if they' get that one or not.

[Savor Dam]

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
"Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration."
"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."
-- all from Thomas A. Edison

Do schoolkids still know about Edison, or is it all pop culture figures now? When I was in 5th - 8th grade (admittedly, now viewed by some as a period when dinosaurs roamed the earth), Edison was one of my heroes...can you tell?

[CovenantJr]

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do." --Mark Twain. When I was a kid I wouldn't have known who Mark Twain was, but I would have recognised the name.

Most of my favourite quotes are more along the lines of why it's ok to be lazy than anything inspirational.

[[Syl]]

Put from you the belief that 'I have been wronged', and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.

[Savor Dam]

Truly an inspirational quotation, Syl...but I greatly fear that for most students in the age range Kaydene mentioned, Marcus Aurelius is not a figure "they'd relate to or recognize."

Of course, I would very much be pleased to be wrong about the students with whom Kaydene is working. I will defer to her judgement in that regard.

Oh, and I'll throw out one more quote in honor of Kaydene's signature...although when fully understood it is not really suitable for youth!

"Let Amanda be your pinecone."
-- Marx Marvelous

[[Syl]]

Aw, you should've seen the Aurelius quotes I didn't go with. I figured advocating suicide or asking kids to recognize their insignificance in the universe wouldn't fly.

[Savor Dam]

It isn't the content of the quote -- it's that my perception is that few students in the fifth through eighth grades (except perhaps those in an exceptionally enlightened honors program) will have been exposed to Aurelius.

[Kaydene]

Oh, and I'll throw out one more quote in honor of Kaydene's signature...although when fully understood it is not really suitable for youth!

"Let Amanda be your pinecone."
-- Marx Marvelous

Yay for Tom Robbins! He's the next Vonnegut! I haven't read "Another Roadside Attraction" yet, unfortunately. But I live by "Still Life with Woodpecker" and "Skinny Legs and All". I also really enjoyed "Villa Incognito".

Some of the quotes I've made into displays already:
Alice in Wonderland:

Alice: "Would you tell me, please, which way i ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to go to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as i get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

Star Wars (Empire Strikes Back):

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” -Yoda

LOTR:

"Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

There are a couple others...but you get the idea.

I like the ones you guys are posting for far! Keep going!

[Menolly]

From Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore:

"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."

"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love."

"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

"Fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself."

"Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them."

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

"Harry, I owe you an explanation," said Dumbledore. "An explanation of an old man's mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young...and I seem to have forgotten lately."

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic far beyond all we do here!"

"...in the light of Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."

"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."

"And now Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."

"--yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often. Best to say nothing at all, my dear man."

"Time is making fools of us again."

"It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."

"In fact, being - forgive me - rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger."

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."

"Ah, Harry, how often this happens, even between the best of friends! Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!"

"From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork."

“That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped.”

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

[Menolly]

"Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky, it's because there's something you don't know." ~Foaly, Artemis Fowl

[[Syl]]

It isn't the content of the quote -- it's that my perception is that few students in the fifth through eighth grades (except perhaps those in an exceptionally enlightened honors program) will have been exposed to Aurelius.

Nothing that can't be solved by making them watch Gladiator.

[Fist and Faith]

Quoting some of my own posts here. Obviously, some are too long, or need explanation. But what the heck.

Jung:

The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.

Two Star Trek: TNG quotes. The last thing said in each could be the quoted by themselves, I suppose.
Trek quote #1 - Data and his daughter (he made a daughter in one episode):

Lal: I watch them, and I can do the things they do. But I will never feel the emotions. I’ll never know love.

Data: It is a limitation we must learn to accept, Lal.

Lal: Then why do you still try to emulate humans. What purpose does it serve, except to remind you that you are incomplete?

Data: I have asked myself that, many times, as I have struggled to be more human. Until I realized it is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are, Lal. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards.

Trek quote #2 - Data and Dr. Crusher:

Data: What is the definition of life?

Crusher: That is a BIG question. Why do you ask?

Data: I am searching for a definition that will allow me to test an hypotheses.

Crusher: Well, the broadest scientific definition might be that life is what enables plants and animals to consume food, derive energy from it, grow, adapt themselves to their surrounding, and reproduce.

Data: And you suggest that anything that exhibits these characteristics is considered alive.

Crusher: In general, yes.

Data: What about fire?

Crusher: Fire?

Data: Yes. It consumes fuel to produce energy. It grows. It creates offspring. By your definition, is it alive?

Crusher: Fire is a chemical reaction. You could use the same argument for growing crystals. But, obviously, we don't consider them alive.

Data: And what about me? I do not grow. I do not reprodue. Yet I am considered to be alive.

Crusher: That's true. But you are unique.

Data: Hm. I wonder if that is so.

Crusher: Data, if I may ask, what exactly are you getting at?

Data: I am curious as to what transpired between the moment when I was nothing more than an assemblage of parts in Dr. Sung's laboratory and the next moment, when I became alive. What is it that endowed me with life?

Crusher: I remember Wesley asking me a similar question when he was little. And I tried desperately to give him an answer. But everything I said sounded inadequate. Then I realized that scientists and philosophers have been grappling with that question for centuries without coming to any conclusion.

Data: Are you saying the question cannot be answered?

Crusher: No. I think I'm saying that we struggle all our lives to answer it. That it's the struggle that is important. That's what helps us to define our place in the universe.

Chris, from Northern Exposure. Not sure this one works without watching the episode. At least not for 5-8 graders. But what the heck:

I've been out here now for some days, groping my way along, trying to realize my vision here. I started concentrating so hard on my vision that I lost sight. I've come to find out that it's not the vision. It's not the vision at all. It's the groping. It's the groping, it's the yearning, it's the moving forward. I was so fixated on that flying cow that, when Ed told me Monty Python already painted that picture, thought I was through. I had to let go of that cow so that I could see all the other possibilities....... I think Kierkegard said it oh so well: “The self is only that which it’s in the process of becoming.” Art? Same thing. James Joyce had something to say about it too: “Welcome oh life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience, and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscious of my race.” We’re here today to fling something that bubbled up from the collective unconsciousness of our community......... The thing I learned folks, this is absolutely key: It’s not the thing you fling, it’s the fling itself.

From The Courtship of Eddie's Father:

Life is not the conclusion. Life is the road.

Here's maybe the best quote of all time. From Neverness. Perhaps it's important to know it's a dolphin-man speaking:

-Oh, ho, listen, Man, and we'll tell you everything! Do you hear the waves whispering the secret? We know you know, Man. The secret of life is just sheer joy, and joy is everywhere. Joy is what we were made for. It is in the rush of the nighttime surf and in the beach rocks and in the salt and the air and in the water we breathe and deep, deep within the blood. And the sifting ocean sands and the wriggling silverfish and the hooded greens of the shallows and the purple deeps and in the oyster's crusty shell and the pink reefs and even in the muck of the ocean's floor, joy, joy, joy!

And here's my favorites about happiness: www.geocities.com/happinessisournaturalstate/

[Cagliostro]

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.

Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.

Don't worry about your heart, it will last you as long as you live.

[Kaydene]

I really like a couple of the Dumbledore quotes and the Star Trek ones. I love one of the quotes on the page you linked to, Fist and Faith, "There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way." but I wonder how upset people would be about me quoting Buddha in a classroom. =/ I'd do it in a heartbeat if I didn't think people would demand I take it down or something.

On a large poster over the front of the room, I have the beginning of my favorite quote, "No man ever followed his genius till it misled him." The whole thing goes like this...

Thoreau

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

My other favorite quote of all time...
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law. I will have no covenants but proximities. I shall endeavor to support my family, to be the chaste husband of one wife, — but these relations I must fill after a new and unprecedented way. I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions…. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth."

But I think the latter is probably something to give to a kid in their teenage years or later. In order for them to truly understand it and not just use it for something else.

[Kaydene]

accidental re-post.

[matrixman]

I'm looking to put up quotes from famous people that are inspiring and relevant to kids ages 5th-8th grades

Well, this might be too "lowest common denominator" for your criteria, but it seems to me that rock/pop stars fit the bill. What other famous people (of the real kind) are more relevant and inspiring to school kids and pre-teens? When I was in school, rock lyrics (of certain artists) held profound insights for me. I thought, wouldn't it be cool if my teachers acknowledged the worth of some of my favorite lyrics? One of my teachers on occasion did allow us to put up our own favorite quotes on the blackboard - and I've always remembered her for that. Not saying you ought to do that for your class; I'm just offering my perspective. (I can picture the furore if some kid were to put up an Eminem quote.)

(As for fictional famous people, I think Fist is on the right track. Can't go wrong with Star Trek...but I could be biased.)

[Kaydene]

I'd be willing to use rock/pop stars within reason. I'll have to ask them about it today and get some of their favorite lyrics. I lost track of what is played on the radio a few years ago, but I'm sure they'll have ideas.

What about quotes from favorite kids movies. Classic ones like Labyrinth, Legend, all that good stuff? Maybe I could find a cute one from Where the Wild Things Are.

[wayfriend]

I'd be willing to use rock/pop stars within reason.

• But if you think about it, midterms are only half way to finals, so you only need to study about as half as hard, and since I study as twice as hard as everybody else, I only need to study a quarter. So I'm done. See how that works?
  -- Hannah Montana

What about quotes from favorite kids movies.

• In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out... But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life.
  -- Goonies

[Warmark]

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do." --Mark Twain.

I've always liked that one.