100 Kindness Quotes for the Classroom - Kindness Quotes for both Teachers & Students

Whilst I LOVE World Kindness Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, and ALL the other dedicated days about kindness, I worry that they can sometimes become a token celebration.

Will some cute kindness day crafts or activities = kind kids? Absolutely not!

But can they generate valuable discussions and create visual reminders & displays for kids to refer to? Absolutely!

So — just as we embed so many things into our daily classroom practice, my hope is that all of my kindness ideas and resources will form one part of the puzzle for you as you embed kindness in your classroom! My hope is that we can show elementary students how the simplest acts of kindness can go such a very long way.

My kindness dominoes freebies are a mix of kindness crafts, kindness interactive displays, kindness prompts and kindness activities. They are designed to be used at any stage of the year, not just for World Kindness Day, and should complement the existing kindness routines and modelling that are already happening in your classroom!

By encouraging kids to reflect on what kindness looks like in practice, to practice compassion and small acts of kindness, and celebrating all of the little ways that we can inject a little more kindness into all of our daily interactions, we are helping the next generation to create kinder habits.

I unpack LOADS of Kindness activity ideas in this blog post.

This post, on the other hand, is going to specifically explore my favourite quotes about kindness for the classroom!

If you like these quotes, guess what?! They are all included in our daily Kindness Prompts in The Hive!

You can check out The Hive anytime with a 14 day free trial.

The following kindness quotes, inspirational quotes and kindness affirmations could be used to create kindness posters and motivational posters for your own classroom bulletin board (brighten up your classroom decor with some kindness!) or to place around your school community. They can generate discussion questions and anchor charts about kindness, promote a kindness challenge and growth mindset, and help encourage a culture of kindness in your classroom community.

Kindness Quotes

1. "Be rainbow in someone else's cloud." - Maya Angelou

2. "You can always give something, even if it is only kindness!" - Anne Frank
3. "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - Dalai Lama
4. "Kind words don't cost much. Yet they accomplish much." - Blaise Pascal
5. "We rise by lifting others." - Robert Ingersoll
6. "If you see someone without a smile, give them yours." - Dolly Parton

7. Everywhere you go, leave a glitter trail of kindness behind you.
8. Throw kindness like confetti.
9. A kind word is like a Spring day.
10. "If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." - Booker T. Washington
11. "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

12. Kind people are the best kind of people.
13. Kindness. It costs nothing, but means everything.
14. Whatever you want to be when you grow up, be kind.
15. Kindness is contagious. Let's make it go viral!
16. When we are kind to others, it often comes back to us like a boomerang!

17. When is the best time to be kind? EVERY time.
18. The essence of kindness is doing something for someone, knowing that the only reward you will get is a warm feeling inside.
19. Be a somebody who makes everyone feel like a somebody.
20. Never be so busy as not to think of others.
21. Kindness is a gift that everyone can afford to give.
22. Kindness is a universal language.
23. "When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world." - Harold Kushner
24. "Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For indeed, that's all who ever have." - Margaret Mead

25. "When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." - William Arthur Ward
26. "Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude." - Confucius
27. “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” - Amelia Earhart

28. "There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up." - John Holmes
29. "Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person." - Plato
30. "Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the blossoms. Kind deeds are the fruits." - Kirpal Singh

31. "How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it!" - George Elliston
32. If you can be anything, be kind.
33. "Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions." - Kiana Tom
34. "Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are." - Harold S. Kushner

35. Kindness makes us feel good, whether it's being done to us or by us.
36. "No-one has ever become poor by giving." - Anne Frank
37. "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

38. "True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions." - Roy T. Bennett
39. "But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword." - Rick Riordan
40. "Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." - Scott Adams

41. "Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary." - J.M. Barrie
42. "Never lose a chance of saying a kind word." - William Makepeace Thackeray
43. "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain
44. "A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." - William Arthur Ward

45. "Always stop to think whether your fun may be the cause of another's unhappiness." - Aesop
46. "Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you." - Princess Diana
47. "Generosity and kindness always feel good to give, and it never feels good to give grief or negativity." - Jason Becker
48. "What this world needs is a new kind of army- the army of the kind." - Cleveland Amory
49. "The only way to have a friend is to be one" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
50. "The very nature of kindness is to spread. If you are kind to others, today they will be kind to you, and tomorrow to somebody else." - Sri Chonmony

51. "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa
52. "Do your little bit of good where you are, it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." - Desmond Tutu
53. Spread kindness like confetti.
54. It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
55. "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no-one is watching." - C.S. Lewis
56. "Have courage and be kind. Where there is kindness, there is goodness. And where there is goodness, there is magic." - Cinderella

57. "Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are." - Roy T. Bennett
58. "Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind." - Henry James
59. "When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
60. "We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone." - Ronald Reagan
61. "Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change." - Bob Kerrey

62. "The simple act of caring is heroic." - Edward Albert
63. "Because that's what kindness is. It's not doing something for someone else because they can't, but because you can." - Andrew Iskander
64. "Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people." - Roy T. Bennett
65. "Sometimes it only takes one act of kindness and caring to change a person's life." - Jackie Chan
66. "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein

67. Kindness is the ability to know what the right thing to do is, and having the courage to do it!
68. "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." - Albert Schweitzer
69. "Never look down on anybody, unless you're helping him up." - Jesse Jackson
70. "The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth." - Albert Einstein
71. "What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

72. "How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time. Kindness is a gateway for all of us to connect and care for each other." - Morgan Freeman
73. "A person's a person, no matter how small." - Dr Seuss
74. Choose to be kind, if for no other reason than there is simply no excuse not to be.
75. Kindness makes you the most beautiful person in the world, no matter what you look like.
76. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou
77. If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion." - Dalai Lama
78. "Be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people." - Karen Salmansohn
79. Kindness is spreading sunshine into other people's lives, regardless of the weather.
80. "Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers." - Kahlil Gibran

Kindness Affirmations

1. My words leave an imprint on other's hearts.
2. I can do kind things without being asked.
3. Kindness is contagious.
4. My actions show others that I value and care about them.
5. I show my friends that I value them through my actions.
6. Including others makes me a good friend.
7. It feels good to be generous and share with others.
8. I can ask questions and be a good listener.
9. It feels good to be kind.
10. Today I will be a kind friend.
11. I can choose to see the good in other people.
12. A kind friend is the right kind of friend.
13. Kindness begins with me.
14. Choosing kindness is just as easy as smiling.
15. "You protect those who need it, no matter how small." - Dr Seuss
16. "If there's a problem, you help fix it." - Dr Seuss
17. "You stand up for what is right." - Dr Seuss
18. I choose kindness.
19. I can be forgiving, even in the most challenging of situations.
20. I will be the I in KIND.

Whether these quotes and affirmations are by famous people or unknown authors, they can have a profound impact on both your own classroom and the whole school.

They beautifully illustrate different acts of kindness and kindness scenarios, showing children just how much kindness matters, and that it is always the perfect time to do a good deed for others. They are a great way to support your character education lessons, showing children all of the different ways that they can demonstrate kind acts, and the big things that can come from those very small things.

My hope is that these quotes will make a great addition to your classroom this school year, and help to show the next generation the extraordinary impact that kindness can have. Even little acts of kindness or the smallest act of caring can go a long way towards making our world a better place.