152+ Best Growth Mindset Quotes for Kids For A Positive Change

Think of a time when your child is trying to do something hard. They stop for a second, take a deep breath, and instead of quitting, they decide to try one more time. I've rooted for my kids and grandkids through many challenges, and I've seen firsthand how believing in themselves can make all the difference.

We need to show kids that stumbling is part of learning, and every time they pick themselves up, they're getting stronger. I've watched my own three children, and now my grandchildren, use every challenge as a learning opportunity.

That's why we should equip our kids with powerful words of encouragement. I've put together more than 152 growth mindset quotes to motivate your children to persevere. These phrases can help them trust in their own abilities, just as we trust in them.

Key Takeaways

• Carol Dweck's research suggests that the right words can significantly boost a child's motivation and resilience in the face of obstacles.
• The quotes collectively convey that consistent effort and the willingness to learn from failures are more crucial than immediate success.
• Wisdom from various figures, including Albert Einstein and A.A. Milne, offers children a broad spectrum of perspectives on growth and determination.
• These sayings can be used in educational settings to foster a positive and persistent approach to learning and problem-solving.

How can growth mindset quotes for kids be helpful?

When your child is struggling with their homework and feeling stuck, a simple growth mindset quote can be surprisingly effective. A growth mindset quote can turn a child's homework frustration into perseverance. Carol Dweck, in her book, suggests these quotes help kids stay motivated and continue trying.

Dweck's research shows that our brains strengthen with effort, just like muscles. By embracing phrases like "I can't do it yet," children learn that progress and effort are part of the journey to success.

Growth mindset quotes act as personal motivators during challenging times, encouraging a shift from "I can't" to "I'm learning." This change in perspective, as Dweck points out, is about valuing the learning process and seeing improvement as a result of overcoming challenges.

Provide your children with growth mindset quotes to help them develop resilience and a passion for learning. These quotes are not mere words, but tools that help kids understand that hard work and persistence can enhance their abilities, leading to a fulfilling transformation from uncertainty to self-assurance.

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152+ Best Growth Mindset Quotes for Your Child

Inspirational Growth Mindset Quotes to Encourage Kids To Make Life Interesting

1. "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." – Albert Einstein
2. "The more you give away the happier you become." – Unknown
3. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas A. Edison
4. "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." – A.A. Milne
5. "It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts." – Zig Ziglar
6. "The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down." – Stephen Richards
7. "Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." – Joshua J. Marine
8. "Just because you haven’t found your talent yet doesn’t mean you don’t have one." – Kermit the Frog
9. "You have to be willing to fail, to improve." – Unknown
10. "Everything you don’t know is something you can learn." – Unknown
11. "The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it." – Unknown
12. "Don’t tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work." – Arthur Rubenstein
13. "No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking." – Voltaire
14. "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." – Charles R. Swindoll
15. "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do." – Pelé
16. "You always pass failure on the way to success." – Mickey Rooney
17. "Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before." – Bonnie Blair
18. "Failure is an opportunity to grow." – Unknown
19. "I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." – Louisa May Alcott
20. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." – Confucius
21. "Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." – James Cash Penney
22. "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
23. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." – Confucius
24. "All things are difficult before they are easy." – Thomas Fuller
25. "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." – Albert Einstein
26. "Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt
27. "What we learn with pleasure we never forget." – Alfred Mercier
28. "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure." – Napoleon Hill
29. "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." – Eleanor Roosevelt
30. "Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit." – Napoleon Hill

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Develop A Growth Mindset Quotes for Students To Grow

1. "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." – Nelson Mandela
2. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." – Plutarch
3. "Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." – John Wooden
4. "Becoming is better than being." – Carol S. Dweck, "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success"
5. "The expert in anything was once a beginner." – Helen Hayes
6. "You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." – Martin Luther King Jr.
7. "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education." – Martin Luther King Jr.
8. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." – Albert Einstein
9. "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." – Paul Halmos
10. "In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn." – Phil Collins
11. "It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer." – Albert Einstein
12. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." – Robert Collier
13. "Failure is success if we learn from it." – Malcolm Forbes
14. "I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." – Vincent Van Gogh
15. "What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." – George Bernard Shaw
16. "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." – Albert Einstein
17. "Growth and comfort do not coexist." – Ginni Rometty
18. "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." – Mahatma Gandhi
19. "It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort." – Jillian Michaels
20. "Change is the end result of all true learning." – Leo Buscaglia
21. "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." – B.B. King
22. "Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." – Richard Branson
23. "The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." – Carl Rogers
24. "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." – John Dewey
25. "Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it." – Confucius
26. "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." – Beverly Sills
27. "The best way to predict your future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln
28. "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." – Confucius
29. "Strive for progress, not perfection." – Unknown
30. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." – Thomas Jefferson
31. "You will either step forward into growth, or you will step back into safety." – Abraham Maslow

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Positive Growth Mindset In Children About Achieving Goals And Facing Challenges

1. "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." – Maya Angelou
2. "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis
3. "Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement." – Brian Tracy
4. "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." – Tony Robbins
5. "You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential." – Steve Garvey
6. "A goal without a plan is just a wish." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
7. "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." – Henry David Thoreau
8. "You are never too young to start setting goals." – Unknown
9. "You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute." – Tina Fey
10. "Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star." – W. Clement Stone
11. "Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." – Earl Nightingale
12. "The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them." – Michelle Obama
13. "Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." – Sam Levenson
14. "You have to believe it before you see it." – Unknown
15. "If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes." – Andrew Carnegie
16. "Don’t tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon." – Paul Brandt
17. "It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up." – Vince Lombardi
18. "The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." – Thomas A. Edison
19. "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." – Robert F. Kennedy
20. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." – Walt Disney
21. "Your goal should be just out of reach, but not out of sight." – Denis Waitley and Remi Witt
22. "You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." – Zig Ziglar
23. "One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals." – Michael Korda
24. "Dreams don’t work unless you do." – John C. Maxwell
25. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." – Eleanor Roosevelt
26. "The distance between your dreams and reality is called action." – Unknown
27. "Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going." – Chantal Sutherland
28. "I can't do it yet, but I can learn to." – Unknown
29. "Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe." – Sumner Redstone
30. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." – Mark Twain
31. "The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." – Mark Zuckerberg
32. "Small steps in the right direction can turn out to be the biggest step of your life." – Unknown

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Learning Growth Mindset Quotes from Carol Dweck That Makes Life Meaningful

1. "In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow." – Carol S. Dweck
2. "Becoming is better than being." – Carol S. Dweck
3. "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 S. Dweck
4. "Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?" – Carol S. Dweck
5. "Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going." – Carol S. Dweck
6. "Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it." – Carol S. Dweck
7. "No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment." – Carol S. Dweck
8. "Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up." – Carol S. Dweck
9. "You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way." – Carol S. Dweck
10. "Choosing a partner is choosing a set of problems. There are no problem-free candidates." – Carol S. Dweck (from her work on relationships and mindset)
11. "If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything. Success is not coming to you, you must come to it." – Carol S. Dweck
12. "The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life." – Carol S. Dweck
13. "Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience." – Carol S. Dweck
14. "It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest." – Carol S. Dweck
15. "What did you do today that made you think hard?" – Carol S. Dweck
16. "What can you learn from this?" – Carol S. Dweck
17. "Is there something you’ve tried to do for a long time that you haven’t yet been successful at? How can you continue to approach it?" – Carol S. Dweck
18. "This is hard. This is fun." – Carol S. Dweck
19. "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." – Carol S. Dweck
20. "You can always substantially change how intelligent you are." – Carol S. Dweck
21. "Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training." – Carol S. Dweck
22. "Growth mindset is about believing that you can develop abilities." – Carol S. Dweck
23. "Teaching is a wonderful way to learn." – Carol S. Dweck
24. "Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?" – Carol S. Dweck
25. "The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning." – Carol S. Dweck
26. "For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt of yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life." – Carol S. Dweck
27. "Look for growth in your effort, struggle, and persistence." – Carol S. Dweck
28. "A company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive." – Carol S. Dweck (from her work on mindset and business)
29. "The whole idea of growth mindset is to say yes they can." – Carol S. Dweck
30. "Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It's about seeing things in a new way." – Carol S. Dweck
31. "Try different learning tactics. There is no one-size-fits-all model for learning. What works for one person may not work for you." – Carol S. Dweck
32. "When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world." – Carol S. Dweck
33. "Students who embrace growth mindsets—the belief that they can learn more or become smarter if they work hard and persevere—may learn more, learn it more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning and skills." – Carol S. Dweck
34. "Changing mindsets is not like surgery. You can't simply remove the bad part and be done with it. Instead, the new mindset is a new way of thinking, and it needs to be cultivated." – Carol S. Dweck

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Growth Mindset Quotes To Inspire Kids in the Classroom To Persevere

1. "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." – Confucius
3. "You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward." – Conrad Hall
4. "Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement." – Matt Biondi
5. "It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer." – Albert Einstein
6. "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go." – Dr. Seuss
7. "Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do." – John Wooden
8. "The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." – Thomas A. Edison
9. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." – Thomas A. Edison
10. "You have to get going and challenge yourself to be more." – Michelle Obama
11. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." – Robert Collier
12. "Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation." – Coretta Scott King
13. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." – Thomas Jefferson
14. "Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." – Joshua J. Marine
15. "No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it." – Richard Feynman
16. "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will." – Vince Lombardi
17. "You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." – A.A. Milne
18. "The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well." – John D. Rockefeller
19. "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." – Eleanor Roosevelt
20. "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." – Paul Halmos
21. "The best way to predict your future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln
22. "Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt
23. "Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe." – Sumner Redstone
24. "Failure is an opportunity to grow." – Unknown
25. "Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before." – Bonnie Blair
26. "If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!" – Michael Jordan
27. "The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it." – Unknown
28. "Just because you haven’t found your talent yet doesn’t mean you don’t have one." – Kermit the Frog
29. "Everything you don’t know is something you can learn." – Unknown
30. "The expert in anything was once a beginner." – Helen Hayes
31. "Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." – Sam Levenson
32. "What we learn with pleasure we never forget." – Alfred Mercier