50+ Best Calligraphy Quotes About The Beautiful Art Form

Supriya Jain
Dec 12, 2023 By Supriya Jain
Originally Published on Jan 28, 2021
Edited by Monisha Kochhar
Paper, ink, calligraphy pens and inscriptions.

Anything beautiful to the eyes immediately becomes catchy and attractive.

Such is the purpose of calligraphy. It gives words and number writing a deeper meaning.

Calligraphy is a very common style of writing. Many artists have turned it into a passion adding in their own styles and personality.

It is one of the most suited decorative styles of writing in almost every item - paper and ink, a perfect love story. Wedding invitation cards, huge posters, T-shirt designs, and calligraphy birthday quotes are some of the examples where it can be witnessed.

This style of writing gives more life to the words on a page of a book or wherever it is. It is one of the things that add beauty and character in this world.

What started with questions and answers writing in English, has now seeped into many languages worldwide with new techniques adding to this beautiful art form. Whether you are a calligrapher or not, these modern calligraphy quotes will definitely inspire to learn more about this attractive way of writing. So let's dip our pen in the ink and get started.

You can also read more quotes such as typewriter quotes and bullet journal quotes that we have prepared just for you!

Inspiring Calligraphy Quotes

Calligraphic writing in English and any language is a treat for the eyes. And only a few people can express it well in words, by use of ink, brush, and paper.

Following are some of the modern calligraphy inspirational quotes by some influential people, that will motivate you to write questions and answers in the way of this beautiful art form. Some of these are cute calligraphy quotes from the heart that may bring new light to your life.

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

- Kaoru Kakogawa

2. “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'

3. “Addison spoke in calligraphy while everyone else talked in scribbles.”

- Shawn Martin, 'Shadow Flesh'

4. “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 Sadie, 'Once on a Moonless Night'

5. “Calligraphies are our images, Maestro, images of our faith.”

- Mathias Étard, 'Parle-leer de bastilles, de roes et elephants'

6. “Calligraphy is a kind of music not for the ears, but for the eyes.”

- V. Lazursky

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

- German Zapf

8. “Modern calligraphy” is the folk-art class of script forms that is easy for someone to learn, compared with the more formal hands of calligraphy that take much time and effort to master.

Modern calligraphy is a class of trendy scripts that are characterized by bounced and rounded lettering, which is closer to freestyle handwriting than historical calligraphy and its variations.”

- Steve Husting

9. “Do calligraphy which is more like you’re handwriting. Connect your letters in ways which no machine can do. This is the future of calligraphy.”

- Ina Salts

10. “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

11. “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 be present or absent.”

- Steven Skaggs

12. “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

13.  "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."

- Karageorge Hoefer

14. “Each letter in every script known to man holds an eternal power, an individual beauty in its vertical, horizontal, angular lines, in their continuity.”

- Achyut Palov, 'Indian Calligrapher'

Famous Quotes About Calligraphy

The art of calligraphy writing is widely recognized. It extends to words, number writing, and signage. Even the most popular icons in the world have something to say about it. Read below to find out the famous calligraphy and lettering quotes, that will inspire you to write more in this beautiful ink style.

15. “Letters act as practical and useful signs, but also as pure and inner melody.”

- Wassily Kandinsky

16.  “I never did calligraphy… But handwriting is an entirely different kind of thing. It’s part of the syndrome of modernism… It’s part of that asceticism.”

- Paul Rand

17. “Calligraphy is the ultimate synthesis of what I love: language, art and human connection.”

- Joy Deneen

18. "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

19. “A written letter is like a bowl filled with a certain content. The purer the content, the more delicate strings of the human soul it touches.”

- L. Provence, Russian Calligrapher

20. “Perfection of handwriting needs proper education, regular exercises, and purity of the soul.”

- Yakut Mutasim, Turkish Calligrapher

21. “What joy there is in hearing yourself think,

and to make that thinking into ink.”

- John Olsen, Australian Artist

22. “For the largest part ill handwriting in the world is caused by hurry.”

- Lewis Carroll

23. “Calligraphy: disciplined freedom is the essence of it, as of any other just form of government.”

- Raymond F. Diboll

24. “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

25. “Calligraphy, a spiritual art that has been forgotten in favor of an emotionless keyboard.”

- Stefan Bolder

26. “Calligraphy — the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand...”

- Robert Brenthurst, ‘The Elements of Typographic Style, 1992’

Handwriting And Writing Quotes

Calligraphy is very related to writing on paper. Even though few are gifted with beautiful writing, some can always enhance it with practice. Hence, we relate handwriting with calligraphy in these hand lettering quotes.

27. “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

28. “You can tell a lot about a person by their handwriting.”

- Pete Doherty

29. “A woman's perfume talks more about her than her handwriting.”

- Christian Dior

30. “I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.”

- Nelson DeMille

31. “Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.”

- Jean Cocteau

32. “Handwriting is a spiritual designing, even though it appears by means of a material instrument.”

- Euclid

33. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your handwriting before. It’s an oddly personal thing, isn’t it?”

- Ann Aguirre, 'Aftermath'

34. “Irony, we want our handwriting to look like typed fonts, and our computer fonts to look like handwritten text.”

-Vikram, "Kurukshetra"

35. “We are living out the drama of a pathetic story whose pages are smeared with our own handwriting.”

- Craig D. Landsborough

36.   “Handwriting is the shackle of the mind.”

-  Plato

37.   “The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.”

- John Adams

38.   “Hand writing causes thinking - the repetition of writing your goal everyday will increase your awareness. The true purpose of a goal is to help you grow.”

- Bob Proctor

39.   “Handwriting is more connected to the movement of the heart.”

- Natalie Goldberg

40. “Print is predictable and impersonal, conveying information in a mechanical transaction with the reader’s eye. Handwriting, by contrast, resists the eye, reveals its meaning slowly, and is as intimate as skin.”

- Ruth Ozeki

41. “All our prayers are addressed in the handwriting of the heart.”

-Karl G. Maser

42.  “Mathematics is the handwriting on the human consciousness of the very Spirit of Life itself.”

- Claude Fayette Brandon

43. “Her handwriting was curious, small sharp little letters with no capitals (who did she think she was, e. e. cummings?)”

- Erich Segal

44.  “She may have looked normal on the outside, but once you'd seen her handwriting you knew she was deliciously complicated inside.”

- Jeffrey Eugenides

45. “The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery.”

- Ralph Hodgson

46. “Every man has one thing he can do better than anyone else--and usually it's reading his own handwriting.”

- J. Norman Collie

47. “I saw that bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of imperfect education.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

48. “Handwriting is autobiography.”

– Carrie Latte

49. “That handwriting was a girl. I mean, you can tell. The enchanted cursive.”

–Rachel Cohn

50. “One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one's own flesh in the inkpot, each time one dips one's pen.”

- Leo Tolstoy

51. “There are five virtues: accuracy, literacy, a strong hand, industriousness, and the perfect writing utensils”

- Mir-Ali Khoravi

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked all our suggestions for 50+ Best Calligraphy Quotes About The Beautiful Art Form then why not take a look at more quotes like Scrapbooking Quotes, or [Vintage Quotes].

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Written by Supriya Jain

Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

Supriya Jain picture

Supriya JainBachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

As a skilled member of the Kidadl team, Shruti brings extensive experience and expertise in professional content writing. With a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Punjab University and an MBA in Business Administration from IMT Nagpur, Shruti has worked in diverse roles such as sales intern, content writer, executive trainee, and business development consultant. Her exceptional writing skills cover a wide range of areas, including SOP, SEO, B2B/B2C, and academic content.

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