The senior quote is a small thing that ends up meaning a lot. Twenty years later, someone cracks open a yearbook and there's your name, your photo, and the sentence you picked to define the year. Some people spend weeks on it. Some people regret what they wrote. Some people get it exactly right.

This list has 50+ inspirational yearbook quotes organized by theme: motivational quotes about the future, quotes about change, success and ambition, big dreams, and a separate section for teacher appreciation. Whether you're filling in your senior page, building a social yearbook, or picking a quote for a school memory book, start here.

And if you're turning those school memories into a physical book, My Social Book can pull your social posts from Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox automatically, organized chronologically, so your school years get the record they deserve. Start a free preview here.

Motivational quotes about the future

These are the ones that look forward. Good for seniors, graduates, and anyone wrapping up a chapter and staring at an open one.

• "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." — Eleanor Roosevelt
• "You are not behind. You are exactly where you need to be."
• "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "The best way to predict your future is to create it." — Abraham Lincoln
• "Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change." — Jim Rohn
• "Write your own story. Don't wait for someone else to hand you the pen."
• "The world needs who you were made to be."
• "Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect." — Alan Cohen
• "One day you'll look back and realize this was exactly the right starting point."
• "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." — John Wooden
• "The road is long but the view is worth it."
• "Go get what you said you were going to get."

Quotes about change and moving on

Graduation is about leaving. These quotes acknowledge that honestly without turning it into a crisis. Good for yearbook pages, senior quotes, and any memory book that marks a transition.

• "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." — Dr. Seuss
• "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." — Seneca
• "Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end." — Robin Sharma
• "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things." — Walt Disney
• "The most important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become." — Charles Du Bos
• "Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge." — Eckhart Tolle
• "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." — Louisa May Alcott
• "When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." — Helen Keller
• "It's okay to outgrow things and people that no longer serve your growth."
• "Not all those who wander are lost." — J.R.R. Tolkien
• "Endings are not sad. They make room for better beginnings."

These work well in a senior section of a school memory book, especially on the same spread as photos from the last day of school, graduation ceremony, or a group photo that everyone knows was the last time they'd all be in the same room. If you've been posting those moments on Instagram, your Instagram photos are already organized by date and ready to become a book.

Success and ambition quotes

For the students who already know what they're going after. These don't hedge. They don't say "good luck." They assume you're going to do the thing.

• "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill
• "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." — Mark Twain
• "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." — Tim Notke
• "Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." — Sam Levenson
• "Opportunities don't happen. You create them." — Chris Grosser
• "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." — Wayne Gretzky
• "The only way to do great work is to love what you do." — Steve Jobs
• "I never dreamed about success. I worked for it." — Estee Lauder
• "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." — Confucius
• "Work hard, stay humble. The rest sorts itself out."
• "The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra." — Jimmy Johnson
• "What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." — Ralph Marston

Dream big quotes

These are the ones that get printed on gym walls and graduation banners, but they get there because they actually mean something. Use them unironically. The seniors who pick one of these and actually believe it are usually the ones you hear about later.

• "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." — Norman Vincent Peale
• "Dream big and dare to fail." — Norman D. Vaughan
• "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." — Walt Disney
• "The bigger the dream, the more important the team."
• "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." — John Lennon
• "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible.'" — Audrey Hepburn
• "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." — Henry David Thoreau
• "If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough." — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." — Mark Twain
• "The question isn't who is going to let me. It's who is going to stop me." — Ayn Rand
• "Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
• "You were born to stand out. Stop trying to fit in."

For school memory books that cover multiple years, My Social Book can pull up to 450 pages of content from your social accounts. That means your freshman year photos through senior year all in one book, in order, with the captions and dates you posted at the time. Start your free preview to see how many years you can pack in.

Teacher appreciation quotes for yearbooks

The teacher pages in a yearbook often get overlooked. These quotes change that. Use them in a faculty section, on a teacher's personal yearbook page, or as a thank-you note in a class photo book made for a retiring teacher.

• "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." — Henry Adams
• "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." — William Arthur Ward
• "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." — W.B. Yeats
• "Teachers plant seeds of knowledge that grow forever."
• "The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." — Mark Van Doren
• "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." — Malala Yousafzai
• "To teach is to touch a life forever."
• "You may forget what they taught. You won't forget how they made you feel."
• "A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning." — Brad Henry
• "Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them grade papers at 11pm."
• "Thank you for seeing something in me before I could see it in myself."

If you're making a class gift photo book for a teacher who's retiring or leaving, a Facebook photo book works well if the class has a shared group or the teacher posts regularly. My Social Book pulls those posts chronologically, dates and captions included, into a book the teacher will actually keep.

How to turn your school memories into a photo book

My Social Book connects to Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox and builds your book automatically. Your photos come in chronological order with original dates, captions, and likes, so the story is already sorted. You just preview and order.

For a school yearbook-style book, this matters: you can go back to your freshman year posts on Facebook and get photos from all four years in one book, up to 450 pages. The layout is automatic. You don't spend hours placing every photo manually.

You can remove any posts you don't want before you order. Preview every page. Then print. Start your free preview here.

My Social Book vs traditional photo book editors

Related: How to select the right photo book maker

Frequently asked questions

What are good inspirational senior quotes for a yearbook?

"The best way to predict your future is to create it" (Abraham Lincoln) and "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" (Dr. Seuss) are two of the most enduring choices. For something less expected: "Go get what you said you were going to get" — short, punchy, and harder to predict from the first word than most senior quotes.

What's a good yearbook quote about change?

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" (Seneca) and "Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end" (Robin Sharma) both work because they're honest about the difficulty of transitions without being discouraging. They don't pretend change is easy. They just say it's worth it.

How do I make a school memory photo book from my social media posts?

My Social Book connects to your Facebook or Instagram account and builds a book automatically in chronological order, so your four years of school posts become a single organized book with dates and captions preserved. Books go up to 450 pages. Start a free preview here.

What are some good teacher appreciation quotes for a yearbook page?

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops" (Henry Adams) is the most quoted. For a more personal choice, "Thank you for seeing something in me before I could see it in myself" lands differently because it's specific to the student-teacher relationship rather than teaching in general.

What's a short, funny yearbook quote?

The best ones are self-aware rather than trying too hard: "I never dreamed about success. I worked for it" (Estee Lauder) hits harder as a funny quote if the student is known for working hard. "Not all those who wander are lost" (Tolkien) works well for someone who spent senior year figuring out what they wanted to do. Context makes the joke.

Whatever year you're documenting, the photos are already there. The captions you wrote in the moment are still attached. All you have to do is put them together. Start your free preview here and see what your years look like in print.

Related reading

• Yearbook quotes
• Yearbook ideas