Vincent van Gogh > Quotes

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I put my heart & soul into my work,& have lost my mind in the process.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. 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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I'm such a nobody.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Only when I fall do I get up again.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I will not live without love.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke”
― Vincent van Gogh

“But for one's health as you say, it is very necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I wish they would take me as I am.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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

“When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion, then I go out and paint the stars.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The sadness will last forever.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The only time i feel alive is when I'm painting.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“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 done well.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one's youth.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The sunflower is mine, in a way.”
― Vincent van Gogh