Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
1. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
2. I dream my painting and I paint my dream.
3. Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.
4. And then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?
5. There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
6. A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke
7. I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.
8. Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.
9. If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
10. I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.
11. I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
12. Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.
13. The sadness will last forever.
14. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
15. I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.
16. The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
17. If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning.
18. If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
19. Art is to console those who are broken by life.
20. I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.
21. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
22. I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’.
23. I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.
24. It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.
25. At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expatiating on this theme it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.
26. I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
27. The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too
28. It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.
29. The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.
30. There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.
31. To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life
32. Love is eternal — the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and was a good lamp, but now it is shedding light too, and that is its real function. And love makes one calmer about many things, and that way, one is more fit for one’s work.
33. Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.
34. I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.
35. Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.
36. If you don’t have a dog–at least one–there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.
37. I will not live without love.
38. I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.
39. 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.
40. In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.
41. Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
42. Only when I fall do I get up again.
43. Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And let us not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.
44. It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one’s youth.
45. When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion, then I go out and paint the stars.
46. Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
47. One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
48. Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can’t do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can’t’ once and for all.
49. I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
50. I confess I do not know why, but looking at the stars always makes me dream.
51. I feel such a creative force in me: I am convinced that there will be a time when, let us say, I will make something good every day , on a regular basis….I am doing my very best to make every effort because I am longing so much to make beautiful things. But beautiful things mean painstaking work, disappointment, and perseverance.
52. And when I read, and really I do not read so much, only a few authors, – a few men that I discovered by accident – I do this because they look at things in a broader, milder and more affectionate way than I do, and because they know life better, so that I can learn from them.
53. For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me want to dream.
54. Don’t lose heart if it’s very difficult at times, everything will come out all right and nobody can in the beginning do as he wishes.
55. But for one’s health as you say, it is very necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing.
56. I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening…like a light in the midst of the darkness.
57. What is done in love is done well.
58. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.
59. Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.
60. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me.
