70 Calligraphy Quotes About the Handwritten Art Form

Quotes can be powerful tools that inspire us, teach us about love, and give us advice for living our life.

Quotes that are written in calligraphy can take the message in those words, and turn into an art form.

The additional beauty that calligraphy gives already inspirational words makes the quote seem even more profound.

So, what exactly is calligraphy, and is it hard to learn?

Many of these calligraphy quotes explain the artform and illustrate why it has such an impact on people.

There are even a few calligraphy quotes focused on the act of writing and how essential letters are.

That might be fine, and it sure looks beautiful, but just how hard is it to master calligraphy?

The answer is that calligraphy is not terribly difficult to learn.

There are lots of tools, worksheets, and videos out there that will help you.

The basics of calligraphy like making sure you have the right tools, understanding the ‘nib’ of your pen, learning how to hold the pen, and practice making lines and curves.

You will do a ton of practice, and that’s why calligraphy is difficult to master because it takes a long time (mastery in most things does).

If you are looking for a few meaningful quotes to practice writing your calligraphy, then these next few quotes are perfect for you.

There are no capital ‘E’s’ or double letters, which are trickier to do!

Don’t forget to also check out these writing quotes to help you create your best work.

If you love this quote collection, read out our most popular quote article about short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

If you need more inspirational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Beautiful calligraphy quotes that will be perfect for beginners

1. “What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.” ― Issac Newton

You will also enjoy our article on drawing quotes.

2. “Work is love made visible.” ― Kahlil Gibran

You will also enjoy our article on painting Quotes.

3. “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” ― Sir Edmund Hillary

4. “We shine bright so that others may shine brighter.” ― Yohancé Salimu

5. “We never outgrow the truth.” ― Yohancé Salimu

6. “Find your peace and live in it.” ― Yohancé Salimu

7. “Have courage and be kind.” ― Cinderella

8. “Change the world by being yourself.” ― Amy Poehler

9. “Whatever you do, do it well.” ― Walt Disney

10. “What we think, we become.” ― Buddha

Inspirational Calligraphy quotes about life and living

11. “Calligraphy is a kind of music not for the ears, but for the eyes.” ― V. Lazursky

12. “Calligraphy is the most intimate, private, and spontaneous expressive means. Like a fingerprint or voice, it is unique with every person.” ― Hermann Zapf

13. “Just above our terror, the stars painted this story in perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too often abused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy.” ― Aberjhani

14. “More powerful than all poetry, more pervasive than all science, more profound than all philosophy are the letters of the alphabet, twenty-six pillars of strength upon which our culture rests.” ― Unknown

15. “Every bottle of ink contains at least one good letter… and it’s at the bottom.” ― Peter Thornton

16. “Calligraphy is like crawling into a funnel from the wrong end: the farther you go, the more there is to learn and do. It is a never-ending source of pleasure.” ― Sheila Waters

17. “Despite the hard work and frustration, the striving for excellence is part of the fun of lettering.” ― Marsha Brady

18. “What an extraordinary way the reed pen has of drinking darkness and pouring out light!” ― Abu Hafs Ibn Burd Al-Asghar, Andalusi poet

19. “There must be endless repetitions of every stroke in order to win exact beauty of execution. But the winning is sure. Failure means nothing — except the need for further practice. Perseverance in it assures nothing less than perfection at the last. “Practise” is the word of power.” ― Edward Summers Squier, M.A. (1919 book)

Short calligraphy quotes

20. “The written is to be read and not to be misread.” ― Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi

21. “Write one letter and wait for ages.” ― Prof. R. K. Joshi

22. “Letters act as practical and useful signs, but also as pure and inner melody.” ― Wassily Kandinsky

23. “Addison spoke in calligraphy while everyone else talked in scribbles.” ― Shawn Martin, Shadowflesh

24. “For the largest part, ill handwriting in the world is caused by hurry.” ― Lewis Carroll

25. “…the problem before us is fairly simple–To make good letters and to arrange them well.” ― Edward Johnston

26. “Geometry can produce legible letters, but art alone makes them beautiful.” ― Paul Standard

27. “Calligraphies are our images, Maestro, images of our faith.” ― Mathias Énard, Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d’éléphants

28. “What joy there is in hearing yourself think, and to make that thinking into ink.” ― John Olsen, Australian Artist

29. “Lettering is my music.” ― Peter Thornton

Calligraphy quotes about love

30. “I never want to stop making memories with you.” — Pierre Jeanty

31. “We love the things we love for what they are.” — Robert Frost

32. “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” — David Viscott

33. “Love isn’t something you find. Love is something that finds you.” — Loretta Young

34. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

35. “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” — Jane Austen, Emma

36. “We are most alive when we’re in love.” — John Updike

37. “If I know what love is, it is because of you.” — Hermann Hesse

38. “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” — Zora Neale Hurston

39. “Tell me who you love and I’ll tell you who you are.” — Creole Proverb

Famous calligraphy quotes about art

40. “Just above our terror, the stars painted this story in perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too often abused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy.” ― Aberjhani, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry

41. “Just as writing can become calligraphy when it’s creatively, skillfully, and consciously performed, so can all other activities become art. In this case, we are reflecting upon life itself as an artistic statement—the art of living.” ― H.E. Davey, Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation

42. “Calligraphy is an art form that uses ink and a brush to express the very souls of words on paper.” ― Kaoru Akagawa

43. “Calligraphy may well be simply an artistic version of another form, that is the ideograms which make up the poem, but then not only does it reflect the character and temperament of the artist but . . . also betrays his heart rate, his breathing.” ― Dai Sijie, Once on a Moonless Night

44. “Calligraphy is the ultimate synthesis of what I love: language, art, and human connection.”― Joy Deneen

45. “Lettering creates readable art that comes to life, displaying a quirky, whimsical nature.”― Peggy Dean, The Ultimate Brush Lettering Guide: A Complete Step-by-Step Workbook to Jump Start Modern Calligraphy Skills

46. “On pristine parchment I draw with my skis calligraphic lines of joy, writing poems of movement.” ― Patricia Robin Woodruff

47. “At first sight Mesihi’s is a very different art: the height of the letter, the thickness of the line that gives movement, the disposition of the consonants, space stretching out according to sounds. Clinging to his reed pen, the calligrapher-poet gives a face to words, to phrases, to lines or verses.” ― Mathias Énard, Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d’éléphants

48. “The calligraphy is found in those aspects of form that reveal the hand’s freedom, the gesture, the dance, the tool’s scraping and flowing, the intersection of mind and nature that occurs when hand and heart move as one. In short, the instantaneous character of the living mark is the calligraphy.” ― Steven Skaggs

49. “Kaz’s art is a powerful example of discipline and freedom. His classical calligraphy captures the inner movement and stillness of the brush and mind.” ― Joan Halifax

50. “The furthering of calligraphy in our own time above all serves self-realization by developing man’s creative talents. Calligraphy frees emotions and abilities which are hidden in the depths of personality. It activates the power of the soul.” ― Karlgeorg Hoefer

Calligraphy quotes that will inspire and fire up your life

51. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

52. “I don’t walk away from things I think are unfinished.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

53. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

54. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

55. It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot

56. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

57. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

58. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown

59. “You become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey

60. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

Fancy Calligraphy Quotes 

61. “I fell in love with my father’s signature. His love for his own name was something to see. He saw himself full of pomp, of crowns, of pride. My father’s pride was cosmic in scale.” ― Manuel Vilas

62. “Calligraphy — the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand…” — Robert Brenthurst

63. “Calligraphy, a spiritual art that has been forgotten in favor of an emotionless keyboard.” — Stefan Bolder

64. “A friend of mine once mentioned something one of his teachers had told him: ‘Calligraphy is like the leaves of a tree. Every letter has the same basic shape and size, but each one is unique.’” — Christopher Calderhead

65. “Calligraphy: disciplined freedom is the essence of it, as of any other just form of government.” — Raymond F. Diboll

66. “Calligraphy has always existed in that place of tension between what the letterform desires: to be completely principled, and what the hand desires: infinite freedom of gesture.” — Steven Skaggs

67. “Bad calligraphy is making forms that are unsure, insecure, self-conscious, whereas good calligraphy unites the freedom of the hand with the mastery of tool and self in performance, whether letterforms are present or absent.” — Steven Skaggs

68. “Always introduce a bit of imperfection, because calligraphy is made by the human hand, not a machine, and human imperfections will always be more appealing to humans than perfection.” — Ina Salts

69. “Do calligraphy which is more like your handwriting. Connect your letters in ways which no machine can do. This is the future of calligraphy.” —  Ina Salts

70. “Good teachers deserve apples; great teachers deserve chocolate. A favorite quotation, written in calligraphy on his office door.” — Richard Hamming

What did you learn from these calligraphy quotes?

Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting and comes in three forms: Western, Eastern, and Arabic.

Most beginners in Western cultures start with Foundation Hand or Bookhand.

It is a basic writing style and is easy to read.

Italic Hand is what most people envision when Westerners think of calligraphy, as it is a little more elegant than Bookhand.

There are many other hands that you can learn and practice, but if you’re new, those two are a good place to start!

Calligraphy is a great hobby to learn if you are looking for a creative outlet.

You can spend your free time learning how to create all the nuances of the letters and eventually move up to more difficult hands.

Just imagine being able to send out a beautifully handwritten card or invitation to your next milestone event.

If you are really artsy, you can learn to paint your words onto cups or canvases for decorating your house.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these calligraphy quotes and sayings?

Can you write in calligraphy?

Share any tips you might have with us in the comment section below!