Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated) Quotes

“My interest in drawing has died down here in England, but maybe I'll be in the mood again some day or other. Right now I am doing a great deal of reading”
― van Gogh, Vincent, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the following plate was completed in 1886, portraying the unusual subject of a skeleton smoking a cigarette. The work has roused many interpretations, including a depiction of mortality and a prophetic cry of the dangers of tobacco. In the next two years, van Gogh painted two other paintings with skulls, illustrating his fascination with the macabre subject.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Painting a picture is as difficult as finding a large or a small diamond. Now, however, whereas everybody recognizes the value of a louis d’or or a pure pearl, those who cherish pictures and believe in them are unfortunately rare. But they exist nonetheless.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Poor Gauguin has no luck. I am very much afraid that in his case convalescence will last even longer than the fortnight which he has had to spend in bed. My God! Shall we ever see a generation of artists with healthy bodies! Sometimes I am perfectly furious with myself, for it isn’t good enough to be either more or less ill than the rest; the ideal would be a constitution tough enough to live till eighty, and besides that, blood in one’s veins that would be right good blood. It would be some comfort, however, if one could think that a generation of more fortunate artists was to come.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“I, for my part, am always glad that I have read the Bible more carefully than many people do nowadays, just because it gives me some peace of mind to know that there used to be such lofty ideals.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“But it won’t do for us to think that I am completely sane. The people from round here who are ill like me have told me there will always be times when you take leave of your senses. So I don’t ask you to tell people that there is nothing wrong with me, or that there never will be. It is just that the explanation of all this is probably not Ricord’s but Raspail’s. Though I have not yet had the fevers of the region, I might still catch them. But they already know a thing or two about all that here at the hospital, and as long as you have no false shame and say frankly how you feel, you cannot go wrong.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“And let me just say this: I think as much of brotherly integrity when it comes to Boussod’s money as you do. It has never played us false. And we have sweated far too much doing good work to get annoyed at being called thieves or incompetents.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Indeed, illness or death holds no terror for me, but happily for us, ambition is not compatible with the callings we follow. There are so many people in all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest, who believe that, anyway.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“There was enough reason for it too, as the whole of France was shaken. Certainly in our eyes the election and its results and its representatives are only symbols. But what it proves once more is that worldly ambition and fame pass away, but the human heart beats the same to this day, in as perfect sympathy with the past of our buried forefathers as with the generation to come.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Only a few words to tell you that my health and my work are not progressing so badly. It astonishes me already when I compare my condition today with what it was a month ago. Before that I knew well enough that one could fracture one’s legs and arms and recover afterward, but I did not know that you could fracture the brain in your head and recover from that too. I still have a sort of “what is the good of getting better?” feeling about me, even in the astonishment aroused in me by my getting well, which I hadn’t dared hope for.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Today, Friday, I went there but could not see him. The intern and the attendant told me that after my wife left, he had had a terrible attack; he had a very bad night, and they had to put him in an isolated room. Since he has been locked in this room, he has eaten no food and utterly refused to talk. That is the exact state of your brother at present.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Monsieur Gogh, I have been to see your brother Vincent. I promised to tell you what I thought of him. I am sorry to tell you that I think he is lost. Not only is his mind affected, but also he is very weak and despondent. He recognized me but did not show any pleasure at seeing me and didn’t ask about any member of my family nor anyone else that he knows. When I left him I told him that I would come back to see him; he replied that we would meet again in heaven, and from his manner I understand that he was saying a prayer. From what the porter told me, I think that they are taking the necessary steps to have him placed in a mental hospital.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“You know that Gauguin is invited to exhibit at the “Vingtistes.” He is already imagining settling in Brussels, and that certainly would be a means towards his being able to see his Danish wife again. Since in the meantime he is very successful with the Arlésiennes, I should not consider this entirely insignificant. He is married but he doesn’t look it very much. In short, I fear that there is an absolute incompatibility of character between his wife and him, but he naturally cares more for his children, who are very pretty according to the portraits.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Understand that the more clear-cut we are about this, the sooner they will come to you to see them. You yourself do not sell my work, so you are not doing business outside the firm of Boussod V. & Co. by showing it. So you will be acting quite correctly, which is always decent. However, should someone or other want to buy, very good, then they have only to apply directly to me. But be sure of this, if we can stand the siege, my time will come.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Yet even then I do not think that my madness would take the form of persecution mania, since when in a state of excitement my feelings lead me rather to the contemplation of eternity, and eternal life. But all the same I must beware of my nerves, etc.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“And do come as soon as you possibly can! P.S. to Gauguin. If you are not ill, do please come at once. If you are too ill, a wire and a letter, please. P.S. to Theo. Perhaps you will think the P.S. to Gauguin too curt, but let him say whether or not he is ill, and anyhow he will recover better here. Have you received my canvases???”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“I must tell you that even while working I think continually about the plan of setting up a studio in which you and I will be permanent residents, but which both of us want to turn into a shelter and refuge for friends, against the times when they find that the struggle is getting too much for them.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Victor Hugo says God is an eclipsing lighthouse, and certainly now we are passing through that eclipse. I only wish that someone could prove to us something calming which comforted us, so that we stopped feeling guilty or unhappy and that we could go forward without losing ourselves in the solitude or nothingness, and without having to fear every step, or to nervously calculate the harm we may unintentionally be doing to others.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“For the moment the solitude doesn’t bother me, and later we will find someone for company, and perhaps in the end more than we want. I believe it is not necessary to say anything unpleasant to Gauguin if he does change his mind, and take it absolutely in good part.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“You are kind to painters, and I tell you, the more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. You will say that then it would be a good thing to do without art and artists.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“assure you that I think it is essential for you as well as me, and no more than our right, too, to always have a louis or two in our pockets, and some stock of goods to do business with. But my idea is that in the end we shall have founded and left to posterity a studio where one’s successor could live. I do not know if I explain myself clearly enough, but in other words we are working for an art and for a business method that will not only last our lifetime, but can still be carried on by others after us.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“My dear sister, it is my belief that it is actually one’s duty to paint the rich and magnificent aspects of nature. We need gaiety and happiness, hope and love. The more ugly, old, mean, ill, poor I get, the more I want to take my revenge by producing a brilliant colour, well arranged, resplendent.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“But what would Monsieur Tersteeg say about this picture when he said before a Sisley - Sisley, the most discreet and gentle of the impressionists - “I can’t help thinking that the artist who painted that was a little tipsy.” If he saw my picture, he would say that it was delirium tremens in full swing.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“In my picture of the “Night Café” I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house,”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Neither Gauguin nor Bernard has written again. I think that Gauguin doesn’t care a damn about it, because it isn’t going to be done at once, and I for my part, seeing that Gauguin has managed to muddle along by himself for six months, am ceasing to believe in the urgent necessity of helping him.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life - the power to create. And if, defrauded of the power to create physically, a man tries to create thoughts in place of children, he is still very much part of humanity.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“Fortunately for me, I do not hanker after victory any more, and all that I seek in painting is a way to make life bearable.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“I hope when you go back to Holland you will take along some study of mine to decorate your room.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“I insist on this, the plan remains just as real and solid whether Gauguin comes or not, seeing that our object doesn’t change - to deliver me and one of the comrades from this cancer that is gnawing at our work, this being forced to live in these ruinous inns without any profit to ourselves. It is pure madness.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)

“You are a good enough judge of painting to see and understand what I may have of originality, and also to see the uselessness of presenting what I am doing to the modern public, because the others surpass me in clearness of touch. That is more the fault of wind and circumstances, compared to what I could do without the mistral and without the fatal conditions of vanished youth and comparative poverty. For my part I am in no way set on changing my condition, and I count myself only too happy to be able to go on as I do.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated)