150+ Inspiring Short Quotes for Lettering and Calligraphy

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Want to start practicing hand lettering and calligraphy but feel blocked because you don’t know what to write?  I’ve put together a list of over 100 short quotes for lettering and calligraphy that you can use now so you never get stuck. In addition to quotes, I’ve included inspirational phrases.

100+ Short Quotes for Lettering

I put this list together because I am participating in a 100 day project challenge. In this challenge you pick a project to focus on for at least 10 minutes every day. I chose to focus on lettering because my goal is to create a font this year!  

I was spending so much time looking for the “perfect” quote so decided to create a list of quotes I could use for hand lettering projects.  No more delays or excuses!  This also allows me to think about what I might want to say about the quote on Instagram.

I’ve broken the words, quotes, and phrases down into lists according to how many words are in them to make it easier to choose a quote that fits your needs.  

Since these quotes and phrases are ones I chose for my lettering, you’ll see a certain theme.  This list includes inspirational quotes around facing your fears, believing in yourself, and changing your thoughts.    

2 Word Phrases and Quotes For Hand Lettering

Begin anywhere – John Cage

Choose love

Be unique

Change constantly

You are enough now - watercolor lettering

Take chances

Stay strong

Stay focused

Rise above

Perfectly content

Notice things

Laughter heals

Keep smiling

Keep going

Keep calm

Just sayin…

Just believe

Inhale exhale

Imperfectly perfect

Follow through

In balance

Fear not

Fairy dust

Explore magic

Enjoy today

Cherish today

Breathe deeply

Be still

Be kind

Be awesome

Amplify hope

Aim high

Accept yourself

Build mastery

3 Word Phrases for Lettering

Live the moment

Never stop dreaming

Follow your heart

Choose to shine

Live the moment hand lettering and mandala

You are unstoppable

Always be yourself

Act without expectation

Be constantly curious

Believe in yourself

Believe you can

Change is good

Dare to suck

Do your best

Focus vs scattered

Happiness in choice

Just be awesome

Keep it simple

Learn from yesterday

Life is awesome

Life is beautiful

Live, laugh, love

Manage your resistance

Never give up

Yes you can

Keep on shining

Love and laughter

Shift your awareness

Creativity takes courage – Henri Matisse

Make it happen 

Leave your mark

4 Word Quotes and Phrases For Hand Lettering and Journaling

Happiness depends on ourselves. – Aristotle

You are a warrior

Think progress, not perfection – Ryan Holiday

Allow yourself to feel 

Find solace in nature

Creativity Takes Courage Watercolor Hand Lettering

No rain no flowers

Do what you love

You are not alone

Patience is a virtue

Make your own magic

Good things take time

5 Word Quotes and Phrases

Be inspired but don’t copy

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. – Jimi Hendrix

Every flower must grow through dirt – Laurie Jean Sennott

Turn your wounds into wisdom – Oprah Winfrey

What we think, we become.  – Buddha

I can and I will 

The obstacle is the way – Ryan Holiday

Rest while the storm passes

My life is my message – Mahatma Gandhi

Powerful dreams inspire powerful action – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Fear regret more than failure – Taryn Rose

Do less with more focus

Don’t stop until you’re proud – Anna Colibri

Creativity is intelligence having fun.  – Albert Einstein

6 Word Quotes and Phrases for Calligraphy Practice

When in doubt, tell the truth – Mark Twain

Prove yourself to yourself, not others. 

A Mistake is Just Success in Progress Watercolor Hand Lettering

We become what we think about – Earl Nightingale

No great thing is created suddenly – Epictetus

Pain is temporary.  Quitting lasts forever.  -Lance Armstrong

We are what we repeatedly do – Will Durant

Dream big and dare to fail – Norman Vaughan

Change the world by being yourself – Amy Poehler

In teaching others, we teach ourselves – Proverbs

Take each day as it comes

Action cures fear, inaction creates terror – Douglas Horton

Accept full responsibility for your life.

Get out of your own way

Get out of your comfort zone

Forget the mistake, remember the lesson

Great fear is concealed under daring – Lucan

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort – Brene Brown

7 Word Quotes and Phrases for your Journal

Live out your imagination, not your history – Stephen Covey

You can if you think you can – George Reeves

Determine your priorities and focus on them – Ellen McDargh

You are enough just as you are – Meghan Markle

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud – Maya Angelou

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door – Milton Berle

Believe you can and you’re halfway there – Theodore Roosevelt

Embrace the glorious mess that you are – Elizabeth Gilbert

What consumes your mind controls your life – Unknown

Without love…breath is just a clock ticking – Dedrick D. L. Pitter

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken – Oscar Wilde

You never fail until you stop trying – Albert Einstein

Above all, a person is their will – Unknown

Create before you consume hand lettering

Feel the fear and do it anyway – Susan Jeffers

She believed she could, so she did.

You make mistakes.  Mistakes don’t make you.  – Maxwell Maltz

It seems impossible until it’s done – Nelson Mandela

You only fail when you stop trying.

8 Word Quotes

Change your thoughts and you change your world – Norman Vincent Peale

Happiness is not by chance, but by choice – Jim Rohn

The starting point of all achievement is desire – Napoleon Hill

Always do what you are afraid to do – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have faith in yourself and the future – Ted Kennedy 

Courage is fear that has said its prayers – Dorothy Bernard

One day or day one, it’s your decision – Paulo Coehlo

Quotes with 8 Words or More for Lettering Composition

You are far more powerful than you ever dreamed – Peter McWilliams

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

If you have a dream, give it a chance to happen – Richard M. DeVos

You must do things you think you cannot do.  – Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s just a bad day, not a bad life – Mary Engelbreit

You must be the change you wish to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears – Nelson Mandela

Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe – Mark Twain

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how – Friedrich Nietzsche

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine – Unknown

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving a new one – Dolly Parton

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself – George Bernard Shaw

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see – Henry Davis Thoreau

Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish – Jessica N. S. Yourko

Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today – Tim Fargo

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet – Mahatma Gandhi

Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit – Will Durant

A pause to catch your breath is a sensible decision

You are allowed to be both afraid and brave

Failure shows us the way – by showing us what isn’t the way – Ryan Holiday

Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be ahead – Ryan Holiday

Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind – Dodinsky

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those that mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind – Dr. Seuss

be grateful handlettering and mandala picture

We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us – Virginia Satir

The quieter you become, the more you can hear – Ram Dass

The past is in your head.  The future is in your hands –  Unknown

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind – Napoleon Hill

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way – Babe Ruth

Time To Get Lettering

Well, there you have it, a little over 150 quotes and phrases for lettering.  I would love to see what you create with these phrases.  

If you have a favorite short phrase or quote that’s not on this list, leave a comment.  

I create my lettering on my iPad using Procreate. Learn about my recommendation for the best iPad for lettering in Procreate here.

150 short quotes and phrases for lettering practice

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