Growth mindset encourages students to think about challenges and mistakes as learning opportunities. It’s another phrase for the idea that when you fall, you get back up again. Use these quotes from historical and modern figures (including some from the researcher who pioneered the growth mindset phrase, Carol Dweck) to inspire students. 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
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. –Carol Dweck
Starting each day with a positive mindset is the most important step of your journey to discovering opportunity. –Jay Samit
I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint, and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you. –Oprah Winfrey
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. –Louis Pasteur
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. –Larry Bird
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. –Winston Churchill
Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor. –Brian Tracy
Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it. –John Wooden
It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going. –Brian Tracy
The best way to predict your future is to create it. –Abraham Lincoln
You can change all things for the better when you change yourself for the better. –Jim Rohn
Discipline is the bridge between thought and accomplishment. –Jim Rohn
The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be. –Carol Dweck
You are always free to choose what you do first, what you do second, and what you do not at all. –Brian Tracy
You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way. –Carol Dweck
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations. –Steve Jobs
Become the change you want to see—those are words I live by. –Oprah Winfrey
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. –Franklin D. Roosevelt
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. –Carol Dweck
The habit of giving up when the present task is half finished and try something else is one of the chief causes of failure. –Christian D. Larson
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record, except perhaps this one thing. I do the things I believe ought to be done. And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act. –Theodore Roosevelt
I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could. –Carol Dweck
Belief in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy. –Norman Vincent Peale
In adversity keep motivated, for often the best comes from difficulty. –Norman Vincent Peale
Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. –A.A. Milne
Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. –Benjamin Spock
Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. –Hal Borland
It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. –Dale Carnegie
First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick. Change has never been simple, or without controversy. Change depends on persistence. Change requires determination. –Barack Obama
Never has man reached his destination by persistence in deviation from the straight path. –Mahatma Gandhi
Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The Power can be created and maintained through daily practice—continuous effort. –Bruce Lee
Your thoughts make you what you are; by changing our thoughts we can change our lives. –Dale Carnegie
If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this weakness may be remedied by building a stronger fire under your desires. –Napoleon Hill
Persistence isn’t very glamorous. If genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the 1 percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other 99 percent. –Susan Cain
Failure has been correctly identified as the line of least persistence. –Zig Ziglar
If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive. –Dale Carnegie
Not realizing what you want is a problem of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a problem of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a problem of persistence. –John C. Maxwell
Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent. –Steve Martin
In every human endeavor, persistence is everything. –Joan Rivers
Let’s not imitate others. Let’s find ourselves and be ourselves. –Dale Carnegie
When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations and the value of hard work and persistence. –Nicholas Sparks
What people see as fearlessness is really persistence. Because I am focused on the solution, I don’t see the danger. –Wangari Maathai
A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. –Elbert Hubbard
You can make an audience see nearly anything if you yourself believe in it. –Mary Renault
You can’t do your best when you’re doubting yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? –Michael Jackson
Have passion for what you do; believe in yourself and your product and your customer; persevere; delegate; listen. Have fun. Today, I add: “Do good.” –Richard Branson
To believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing. –Mark Twain
Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself. –Oprah Winfrey
It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe. –Blaise Pascal
I attribute my success to this—I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale
I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise. –Jessica Savitch
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out. –Robert Collier
It takes twenty years to make an overnight success. –Eddie Cantor
Every failure is a step to success. –William Whewell
A minute’s success pays the failure of years. –Robert Browning
All our dreams can come true—if we have the courage to pursue them. –Walt Disney
Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping. –Julia Margaret Cameron
Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it. –Steve Maraboli
It’s a lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself. –Muhammad Ali
The greater the obstacle, the greater the glory in overcoming it; and difficulties are but the maids of honor to set off the virtue. –Molière
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. –Thomas Paine
The better your attitude and the harder you work, the luckier you get. –Robert G. Allen
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. –Colin Powell
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. –Og Mandino
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. –Paramahansa Yogananda
For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour. –Mary Kay Ash
There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success. –Max Beerbohm
If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain. –Dolly Parton
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. –Martin Luther King Jr.
There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now. –James Baldwin
Passion presented with a greater challenge achieves a greater goal. –Aberjhani
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. –Thomas H. Palmer
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. –Frank Clark
Like these growth mindset quotes? Check out these motivational quotes for students too!
Plus, come share your favorite growth mindset quotes in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook!
