To stably feed a wide range of sheets from thick paper with strong rigidity (stiffness) to thin paper with weak stiffness.

This paper feeding device is provided with a paper feed roller 2 applying feed force to sheets, a separation pad 4 for pressing the sheets against the paper feed roller 2 and separating the fed sheets one by one, and a pressing force reducing means for reducing sheet pressing force with respect to the paper feed roller 2 by the separation pad 4. The pressing force reducing means is operated when pressure applied to the separation member exceeds certain amount.