Welcome to our collection of pencil quotes, where the humble writing instrument becomes a vessel for profound thoughts, creativity, and inspiration. Pencils have been a timeless tool, accompanying writers, artists, students, and thinkers throughout history. Their simplicity belies their significance, as they symbolize the first step in bringing imagination to life, whether through sketching, note-taking, or drafting the next literary masterpiece.
From the hands of visionaries like Leonardo da Vinci to the desks of schoolchildren doodling in the margins of textbooks, pencils have left an indelible mark on human expression. Their versatility knows no bounds, effortlessly transitioning from the precision of technical drawings to the fluidity of freehand sketches. Beyond their practical utility, pencils evoke a sense of nostalgia, reminding us of simpler times and the joy of creation unencumbered by digital distractions. Join us as we explore the profound wisdom and musings encapsulated in these unassuming yet powerful tools of creativity. Below, you’ll find an array of quotes celebrating the enduring legacy of the pencil, ready to be adorned on images or enhanced with stylish fonts, serving as a testament to its enduring relevance and timeless appeal.
My general working style is to write everything first with pencil and paper, sitting beside a big wastebasket. Then I use Emacs to enter the text into my machine. Donald Knuth
I don’t know how many thoughts we have a second, but it’s quite an amazing number, and just to pin down the appropriate sequence of those, all you really need is a pencil and a piece of paper. Robert Wyatt
A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage. Robert McNamara
When writers stop to sharpen pencils or get up and make coffee to procrastinate, they still stay in their heads with their characters. But when you zip over to read email or check your Facebook page, you get zapped out of the fictive dream. It’s brutal on my writing. M. J. Rose
You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead. Stan Laurel
Map out your future – but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip. Jon Bon Jovi
When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools. Michael LeBoeuf
The hard part of writing at all is sitting your ass down in a chair and writing it. There’s always something better to do, like I’ve got an interview, sharpening the pencils, trimming the roses. There’s always something better to do. Going to a writer’s club? Jerry Pournelle
Writers displace their anxiety on to the tools of the trade. It’s better to say that you haven’t got the right pencil than to say you can’t write, or to blame your computer for losing your chapter than face up to your feeling that it’s better lost. Hilary Mantel
But I do have time to pencil in golf, and we’ve got four excellent courses. Darrell Royal
A lot of songs you write are just for exercise – just pencil sharpeners. Harlan Howard
When you come up with a theory, you fall in love with the beauty the simplicity and elegance of it. But then you have to get a sheet of paper and pencil and crack out all the details. Hundreds and hundreds of pages. Because you have to prove it. Michio Kaku
My journey began with a single pencil. While traveling through India in 2006, I asked a boy begging on the streets, ‘If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?’ and he answered me with two words: ‘A pencil.’ Luckily, I had one in my pocket, and in the second it took me to give it to him, a defining dream was born. Adam Braun
As a child, I would rush to the school gates as the bell went, to be collected by my mother, Marilyn, who was always immaculately dressed in a pencil skirt and matching jacket. Kate Garraway
I was quiet, a loner. I was one of those children where, if you put me in a room and gave me some crayons and a pencils, you wouldn’t hear from me for nine straight hours. And I was always drawing racing cars and rockets and spaceships and planes, things that were very fast that would take me away. Gary Oldman
I put some red stuff on my mouth and cheeks so I look healthy – any old red lip pencil and a lip colour from Dr. Hauschka in a crushed berry tone. I never put anything on my eyes, or I look like Joan Crawford. Jane Birkin
I don’t want boys to use their pencils for improper writing. John Burns
I often read nonfiction with a pencil in hand. I love the feel, the smell, the design, the weight of a book, but I also enjoy the convenience of my Kindle – for travel and for procuring a book in seconds. Drew Gilpin Faust
Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Inflated descriptions by the pen or exaggerated illustrations by the pencil. Grace Darling
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead. Edsger Dijkstra
‘Lizzie McGuire’ was my big thing when I was younger. I did buy some pencils and back-to-school stuff of hers because she was on it. I loved her. Jordin Sparks
It is difficult to describe in short the enthusiasm and devotion provoked by and given to my research. We lived almost in poverty. I used pencils, two for a nickel, and could not buy a fountain pen, when I lost mine. Immanuel Velikovsky
A programming language is for thinking about programs, not for expressing programs you’ve already thought of. It should be a pencil, not a pen. Paul Graham
I got behind that pencil and nothing happened for many years, but since they put me in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I’ve turned around. I took a good look at myself and said, I think it’s time to get back at work. Otis Blackwell
I’ve always written by hand. Mostly with a fountain pen, but sometimes with a pencil – especially for corrections. Paul Auster
If I want to put on a pair of Converse with a pencil stuck through them, I will. Willow Smith
I’m impressed by the way some illustrators develop their images on computers, but it’s too late for me to start, and I’m still in love with paper and paint and pencils. Anthony Browne
The computer dictates how you do something, whereas with a pencil you’re totally free. James Dyson
I was a Fine Art major. You do a bit of everything until the final year, when you specialise. I did pencil drawing and sculpture. It’s a pretty well-rounded fine art education. I thought that it was viable option to make a living out of art. I’m not sure if I was thinking realistically; maybe I never was. But it had great appeal. Timothy Olyphant
College atheletes used to get a degree in bringing your pencil. Ruby Wax
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. Truman Capote
When I travel, I always take my Winsor & Newton watercolor kit, which is the size of a pack of cigarettes when folded up. I bought my first one in the 1980s. It was handy to bring on trips, and I packed it into a leather pouch along with a couple of brushes, a pencil, an eraser and paper. Susan Minot
Well, painting is the one thing I do, that is just me. It’s me and easels, and the pencils. And as long as I don’t drool too much over the canvas, the colors come out pretty good. And it’s a chance to express all that I’ve got inside, that I sometimes keep hidden. And I think that’s why I paint big broad, wide open landscapes. Joni Eareckson Tada
As a writer, I have learned that each time I pick up my pencil I betray someone. Terry Tempest Williams
What you do is, you have your drawing board and a pencil in hand at the telescope. You look in and you make some markings on the paper and you look in again. Clyde Tombaugh
I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching. Karl Lagerfeld
I once saw an elaborate landscape in a gallery, drawn in pencil, that took my breath away. Then I realized the artist probably didn’t have enough confidence to use a pen. Garry Shandling
I’m naturally a mousy blonde, so I dye my hair, and my eyebrows would disappear if I didn’t get through at least a pencil a month. Beth Ditto
I start with an idea in my head. I sketch it out quickly as a line drawing, using pencil. It never comes out quite right – usually a bit better than my mental picture. Jamie Hewlett
I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder. Dolly Parton
Since I’ve been hired to contribute to the storyline of ‘Doom 4’ I can say what was always true anyway. I’m working. You see, for a writer, lots of stuff that doesn’t look like working is actually working. Looking out of the window, for example. Balancing a pencil on the edge of the desk in order to find its exact fulcrum. Playing ‘Doom.’ Graham Joyce
There’s something brave and touching about game girls of all ages keeping themselves smart in hard times – one thinks of those wonderful women during World War II drawing stocking seams in eyebrow pencil up the back of legs stained with gravy browning because nylons were so hard to get hold of. Julie Burchill
I always tell people that my life is in pencil; I have to keep an eraser in my hand because I could always get a call that could change everything. Linda Gray
At night if I’m in a hurry, I’ll just put on a lot of mascara and black pencil all the way around the inner rim. It’s a totally sexy eye in a minute and a half. Brooke Burns
Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper. Jean Cocteau
My daughter loves to do art stuff. As a father, I like to play with her. We break out the big pads of paper and the glitter and all the stuff. She likes to do what she likes to do. I want to do something, too. So I’ve just started using her same materials – a lot of crayons, a lot of sparkle, charcoal, pencils, markers and glue. Stone Gossard
Nevertheless, the realization that breaking a pencil point would have far less disastrous consequences played little or no role, I believe, in this decision to explore theory! Rudolph A. Marcus
Teachers should not need to have to buy books for the kids, or pencils and pens. That’s absurd. Rob Halford
I don’t believe in making pencil sketches and then painting landscape in your studio. You must be right under the sky. William Merritt Chase
I’d rather have a pencil and paper and do all my own calculations rather than rely on a machine. And I’ll do most calculations in double digit multiples as quick as the machine. Lindsay Fox
Ideas are elusive, slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside, so you can stab them during the night before they get away. Earl Nightingale
Ultimately, to me, the computer is just a big pencil. What can we sketch using this pencil that makes a positive difference to society and advances the state of the art, hopefully in an outsized way? Oren Etzioni
I thought the Secret Service would protect me from the press, but they were at my house to protect me from assassins with guns, not with assassins with pencils. Michael Reagan
You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know that if you don’t have a pencil and pad by the bed, it will be completely gone by the next morning. Sometimes it’s important to wake up and stop dreaming. When a really great dream shows up, grab it. Larry Page
Comedians are really writers who don’t have pens and pencils about them, but they riff. Carl Reiner
A pencil and rubber are of more use to thought than a battalion of assistants. To happiness the same applies as to truth: one does not have it, but is in it. Theodor W. Adorno
We have defined these characters – people always expect to see me in a pencil skirt. When they see me out of one – much like when they see Jon Hamm’s hair when it isn’t slick – they say, ‘Wait a minute, you’re all 2010!’ Christina Hendricks
I grew up with an impatience with the anti-scientific. So I’m a bit miffed with our current love affair with all things Eastern. If I sneeze on the set, 40 people hand me echinacea. But I’d no sooner take that than eat a pencil. Maybe that’s why I took up boxing. It’s my response to men in white pajamas feeling each other’s chi. Hugh Laurie
What can a pencil do for all of us? Amazing things. It can write transcendent poetry, uplifting music, or life-changing equations; it can sketch the future, give life to untold beauty, and communicate the full-force of our love and aspirations. Adam Braun
The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly. Bernard Malamud
I don’t much enjoy travelling, but I have always longed to take a slow train to Russia. I’d like to go alone – like writers do – with only a pencil and piece of paper as company. I’d take my sketchbook and note down all the wonderful details of other travellers. Jane Birkin
The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you’ll do yourself a service. Stephen Sondheim
Our education system is increasingly embracing a black-and-white way of thinking, in which ‘learning’ and ‘play’ are diametrically opposed. ‘Learning’ is the serious stuff that happens inside a classroom and can be measured via multiple choice questions and a No. 2 pencil. ‘Play’ is frivolous, fun, and worst of all, optional. Darell Hammond
For events, I do use make-up, but normally I don’t. I might use a bit of eyebrow pencil and a lipstick but nothing else. Alicia Vikander
I can draw pencil lines to show something is moving, but if I’m writing, I struggle with how to write it. The boy ran down the hallway? The boy ran quickly down the hallway? The boy ran down the marble hallway? I agonize over the words. So my editor works very hard. I’m lucky to have her. Brian Selznick
It’s not how big your pencil is; it’s how you write your name. Dave Mustaine
I think I am becoming obsessive-compulsive. David Beckham apparently turns all the Diet Coke cans in his fridge to face the same way every morning, and I nerdily sharpen all the pencils in my pot before sitting down to work. Andrew O’Hagan
Just like hair frames our face, brows frame our eyes. I see so much potential in harmonized beauty whenever I see a woman who’s not filling in her brows, and I just want to go in with my brow pencil and just be like, ‘Filling in eyebrows, OK, done – look in the mirror and be inspired.’ That’s one of my pet peeves, but beauty is subjective. Michelle Phan
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
On occasion I have drawn as a release from painting. The economy in using paper, pencil, charcoal and crayon can help towards a greater gamble and higher rewards. I also find that drawing can generate ideas more rapidly than painting. William Scott
A pencil has eraser because it make mistake. The Iron Sheik
The eyebrow pencil and false eyelashes were essential; my mother didn’t feel dressed without them. Lorna Luft
Writing long hand is the last refuge. One needs the time it takes to put pencil to paper and let it run along the ruled line. Antonio Damasio
I never had the exposure to techniques and so forth that children have today with art workshops, but I always had crayons and pencils and still have work going right back to when I was five or six years old. Robert Indiana
In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. Vincent Van Gogh
People still think of me as a cartoonist, but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to sign a contract, a check, or an autograph. Walt Disney
I don’t like drawing characters facing right. If I tried to do that at a book signing, I’d have to pencil it first. Stephan Pastis
I had never walked on the street alone when I was growing up in Calcutta, up to age 20. I had never handled money. You know, there was always a couple of bodyguards behind me, who took care if I wanted… I needed pencils for school, I needed a notebook, they were the ones who were taking out the money. I was constantly guarded. Bharati Mukherjee
What I’ve become convinced makes a writer are the days you hate it, the days you’d rather stick those pencils in your eyes. Sometimes I almost punish myself – if I’m not going be able to write, I’m not going be able to do anything else. I just sit there and wait. Ron Rash
I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool. John Steinbeck
I have a tendency, more than most other physicists, to try to figure out everything all at once, before I publish. And even to try to figure out everything in my head, without pencil and paper. Edward Witten
I’m pretty much a dinosaur in the studio. I like things hand-drawn, even today. The story artists use Cintiqs, but I’m the only person who hasn’t completely converted to computers. I like the Cintiq, but there’s something about the raw emotional power of using paper and pencil. Walt Dohrn
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
When I was very little my mother said I used to draw in the air with my fingers. I needed a pencil. Once I could hold one, I have drawn every day since. Oscar Niemeyer
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning. Samuel Beckett
I would argue that education, actual learning – it is hard work. It’s very personal. Your parents don’t teach you anything. Your teachers don’t teach you anything. The government doesn’t teach you anything. You read it. You don’t understand it; you read it again. You break a pencil and read it again. Dean Kamen
When you go somewhere like Kenya and you see how the children don’t have pencils and pens, and all of these things are considered luxuries, and what a privilege they see education as and how hungry they are to learn, I wanted to give my brother and sister long lectures. That definitely stayed with me. Naomie Harris
I loved painting and drawing for many reasons. One of them was that all it really required was me, a pencil and a pad. It was something I was passionate about, and still am. Danny Huston
I drew a picture on the back of a calendar in pencil. In those days they used to give out free calendars, I had no art paper, so I took whatever else I could. Joe Shuster
In middle school, I started to draw, and my pencil sketches were huge. They were these 4ft by 3ft drawings, and I got a lot of attention for that, so that was very validating. But I didn’t start cartooning until I was in college. Jeff Kinney
I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes. John Philip Sousa
Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. Gilbert K. Chesterton
I created DonorsChoose by putting pencil to paper – literally – and sketching out each screen of the web site and how it would work. Then I paid a programmer from Poland $1,500 to turn my sketches and common-sense rules into a functioning website. Charles Best
With pencil, you can always erase. Sue Monk Kidd
But, I don’t know, the violence, I can’t even talk about. We don’t do a lot of violent shows. When I started in television, breaking a pencil was a violent act. Aaron Spelling
I know what I’m doing even when I’m wearing a pencil skirt. Shakira
I have always been a pencil. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
It was pure guesswork on my part back in 1979 as to whether I would have the stamina to write, pencil, ink, letter, tone, and fill the back of a monthly comic book for 26 years. Dave Sim
Your body is like a piece of dynamite. You can tap it with a pencil all day, but you’ll never make it explode. You hit it once with a hammer: Bang! Get serious. Do 40 hard minutes, not an hour and half of nonsense. It’s so much more rewarding. Jason Statham
