55 back-to-school quotes to inspire students for the year ahead

Summer has flown by and, as hard as it is to believe, back-to-school season has officially arrived.

If you haven't even thought about stocking up on pencils, pens and notebooks yet, not to worry, there are plenty of school supplies' sales going on right now and chances are pretty good that you can still score a deal on all the essentials.

And, since the cool days of autumn are still a few weeks off, there's no need to break out the sweaters and Halloween costumes quite yet. But consider yourself warned: It's coming.

Whether your kids are excited to start a new year or are suffering from a bad case of the school scaries, these back-to-school quotes are just right for stashing in a lunchbox, sending via text or posting along with your first-day-of-school photos on Instagram.

Fortunately, we've done our homework and collected encouraging, funny and motivational messages from the likes of Dr. Seuss, Albert Einstein, Dan Rather, Eleanor Roosevelt and other luminaires to help you say exactly what's on your mind.

Use one as a welcome note for a new teacher or for anything else you see fit. Whichever you choose, we promise, these back-to-school quotes will send you straight to the head of the class.

• “A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.” — Joyce Meyer

• “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” — Mark Twain

• “What we learn with pleasure we never forget.” — Alfred Mercier

• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

• “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” — Albert Einstein

• “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” — Lily Tomlin

• “No one is perfect. That’s why pencils have erasers.” — Wolfgang Riebe, “100 Quotes to Make You Think”

• “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” ― Robin Williams, "Dead Poets Society"

• “Everything is hard before it is easy.”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• "The beginning is always today." — Mary Shelley

• "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." — F. Scott Fitzgerald

• "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." — Robert Collier

• "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." — Margaret Fuller

• "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." — Alexander Graham Bell

• "In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson." — Tom Bodett

• "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." — Herbert Spencer

• “You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d think you do. You build by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities.” — Barbara Bush

• “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss.

• “School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” — Lon Watters

• “You must do the things you think you cannot do." — Eleanor Roosevelt

• “You can learn something every day if you pay attention.” — Ray LeBlond.

• “Think about every problem, every challenge we face. The solution starts with education.” — George H.W. Bush

• “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." — Albert Einstein

• “Our goal must be decency and respect for every human we encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey

• "Education doesn’t make us smarter. It makes us whole.” — Jill Biden

• “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.” — Dan Rather

• “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” — Margaret Mead

• "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." — Nelson Mandela

• “Nothing prevents boredom like a good book." — Dave Pilkey

• “Our passion is and always should be to make life better.” — Martha Stewart

• “I’ve always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings.” — Jenny Han, "To All the Boys I've Loved Before"

• “Knowledge — that is, education in its true sense — is our best protection against unreasoning prejudice and panic-making fear, whether engendered by special interest, illiberal minorities or panic-stricken leaders.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

• “Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different styles.” — R.L. Stine

• “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” — Aristotle

• “There’s more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island." — Walt Disney

• “Intelligence plus character — that is the true goal of education.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

• “The road to freedom — here and everywhere on earth — begins in the classroom.” — Hubert Humphrey.

• “The more that you read, the more things you know, the more learn, the more places you’ll go." — Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"

• “Encourage kids to be creative without worrying about being perfect.” — Dav Pilkey

• “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

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

• “There is no single recipe for success. But there is one essential ingredient: passion.” — Martha Stewart

• “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” — Brian Herbert

• “The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.” — Gerald Ford

• “You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” — Oprah Winfrey

• “Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them.” — Josie Bissett

• “Our greatest natural resource is in the minds of our children.” — Walt Disney

• “Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.” — James Dewar

• “Information may be free, an education is priceless.” — Marie Forleo

• “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” — G.K. Chesterton

• “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"

• “The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not graduation day.” — Harry Wong

• "Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody." — Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park"

• “There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others.” — Michelle Obama, “Becoming”

• “Being fearless isn’t being 100% not fearful, it’s being terrified but you jump anyway.” — Taylor Swift

This article was originally published on TODAY.com