47 Paper Quotes For Paper Lovers

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published January 6, 2023

We have the best paper quotes for paper enthusiasts or anyone interested in paper.

If you are looking for the best quotes about paper, we have got you covered.

What is the history of paper?

Long before paper existed, humans were writing on papyrus.

African engineers harvested the cyperus papyrus plant to manufacture papyrus sheets for writing, rope making, basketry, and sandals.

Writing on papyrus sheets was made commonplace by Egyptian inventors.

Paper has come a long way.

Check out these exciting paper facts!

One pine tree produces 80,500 sheets of paper.
Paper money isn’t actually paper; US currency is made of cotton and linen.
Americans use 90 million tons of paper per year.
American businesses use enough paper daily to circle the globe 20 times.

The technology and concept for paper as we know it was made in China.

In 105 AD, a Chinese inventor named Ts’ai (or Cai) Lun formed macerated vegetable fiber into thin sheets.

The process was relatively easy and could be reproduced by others using all-natural ingredients such as cotton, vegetable skins, and old fish nets.

Initially, paper was not available to ordinary people.

Governments and wealthy merchants could afford paper and use it for religious pictures or to depict nobles.

Modern paper production

In modern times, China and The United States produce the world’s paper.

Overharvesting trees for paper production is a vital concern.

Many of the world’s governments go to great lengths to regulate paper production and enforce recycling efforts.

Pollution and deforestation are two problems that cause severe environmental hazards.

Check out our paper quotes below for more paper fun.

Short paper quotes

Here are some quick paper quotes.

1. “Paper is no longer a big part of my day.” — Bill Gates

2. “Blank paper has always inspired me.” — Daniel Handler

3. “I write with a pen and paper. Never on a laptop.” — Robert Smith

4. “One Ad is worth more to a paper than forty Editorials.” — Will Rogers

5. “Documents create a paper reality we call proof.” — Quentin Tarantino

6. “I just freestyle. I don’t actually write the words on paper.” — Tory Lanez

7. “I write while I’m walking, on little scraps of paper.” — Juan Felipe Herrera

8. “Everything seems really simple on paper until you take a camera out of the box.” — David Fincher

9. “The only reason anyone ever called me a hero is because I get this paper, here.” — Kyle Chandler

10. “I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep, I wrote in the dark.” — Henry David Thoreau

Paper quotes about life

Here are some paper quotes that remind us how essential paper is.

11. “A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.” — Stanley Kubrick

12. “Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.” — George Bernard Shaw

13. “When you have committed enough words to paper, you feel you have a spine stiff enough to stand up in the wind.” — Hilary Mantel

14. “I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice – anything just to get a paper bag.” — Jay-Z

15. “Students can’t dream big when classrooms lack books, microscopes, and robotics kits – or even paper, pencils, and paste.” — Charles Best

16. “If he takes the time to put pen to paper and not type something, there’s something so incredibly romantic and beautiful about that.” — Meghan Markle

17. “Writing is truly a creative art – putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot.” — William Shatner

18. “Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another day’s progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper.” — John Updike

19. “Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper, you can lose an idea forever.” — Will Self

Insightful paper quotes and sayings

These clever paper quotes highlight how paper is used in many aspects of our lives.

20. “I was the first one who had the urge to express myself on paper rather than at the coalface.” — Alan Bennett

21. “May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.” — Franz Kafka

22. “You need to set near-term milestones. Put the assumptions down on paper, and make it to your vision or ultimate product.” — Tony Fadell

23. “I’ve never voted in my life. I’ve never felt able to put my pen to a ballot paper because there was nobody I believed I could vote for.” — Bez

24. “I’d write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.” — Jay-Z

25. “Spoken word poetry is the art of performance poetry. I tell people it involves creating poetry that doesn’t just want to sit on paper.” — Sarah Kay

26. “If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you.” — Henry Rollins

27. “True luxury is being able to own your time – to be able to take a walk, sit on your porch, read the paper, not take the call, not be compelled by obligation.” — Ashton Kutcher

Inspirational paper quotes that will make your day

Many of the most inspirational messages are written on paper.

28. “It is the advertiser who provides the paper for the subscriber.” — Alexander Hamilton

29. “I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.” — Steve Martin

30. “A lasting marriage, they say, is one where the two reach for different sections of the Sunday paper.” — Billy Collins

31. “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” — Gene Fowler

32. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.” — Maya Angelou

33. “God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is, at least for me, an abuse of paper.” — Alvar Aalto

34. “You only get one shot at life, one life to live, make the most out of it, put as many smiles as you can on people’s faces, help as many people as you can, get you some paper.” — Young Dolph

35. “I wrapped my Christmas presents early this year, but I used the wrong paper. See, the paper I used said Happy Birthday on it. I didn’t want to waste it, so I just wrote ‘Jesus’ on it.” — Demetri Martin

36. “In the animation world, people who understand pencils and paper usually aren’t computer people, and the computer people usually aren’t the artistic people, so they always stand on opposite sides of the line.” — Don Bluth

37. “I remember during Easter one year, I was to get a pair of black patent shoes, but you could only get them from the white stores, so my mother drew the outline of my feet on a brown paper bag in order to get the closest size because we weren’t allowed to go in the store to try them on.” — Claudette Colvin

Paper quotes about the history of paper

The quotes below highlight papers’ ancient history across the world.

38. “My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper.” — Robert Bresson

39. “You can show your love in other ways. Ink is not it. Write it on a piece of paper and mail it to him.” — Lauren London

40. “I am current on today’s events, and I read the paper every day, and we talk about it, so they see that appetite.” — Michael J. Fox

41. “It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.” — Rod Serling

42. “The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of mattress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.” — Brendan Behan

43. “College is something I’ve always said I wanted to do, but you’re going there to get a piece of paper that says you can get a job, but if I’m already working steadily and doing good work, it makes you question your priorities.” — Gaten Matarazzo

44. “Planned Parenthood’s mission, on paper, is to give women quality and affordable health care and to protect women’s rights. In reality, their mission is to increase their abortion numbers and, in turn, increase their revenue.” — Abby Johnson

45. “Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges… which are employed altogether for their benefit.” — Andrew Jackson

46. “In the marathon obstacle course of a career, it’s just good to have all the stats on paper for why you’re not only a team player but also why it makes sense to support you in the projects you want to do – because you’ve made so much damned money for the studio.” — Robert Downey, Jr.

47. “All my time not devoted to my master’s service was spent either in prayer, or in making experiments in casting different things in molds made of earth, in attempting to make paper, gunpowder, and many other experiments, that, although I could not perfect, yet convinced me of its practicability if I had the means.” — Nat Turner