Top 425 Quotes & Sayings by Vincent Van Gogh - Page 3

It is true that every day has its own evil, and its good too. But how difficult must life be, especially farther on when the evil of each day increases as far as worldly things go, if it is not strengthened and comforted by faith. And in Christ all worldly things may become better, and, as it were, sanctified. Theo, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel; if I did not aim at that and possess faith and hope in Christ, it would be bad for me indeed, but no I have some courage.

The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism.

Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me.

The sight of stars makes me dream.

We are surrounded by poetry on all sides.

Art, although produced by man's hands, is something not created by hands alone, but something which wells up from a deeper source out of our soul.....My sympathies in the literary as well as in the artistic field are drawn most strongly to those artists in whom I see most the working of the soul.

A woman is not old as long as she loves and is loved

It is the language of nature to which one has to listen.

I am no friend of present-day Christianity, though its Founder was sublime.

The painter of the future will be a colorist unlike anything yet.

I hope I shall be able to make some drawings in which there is something human.

Love is something eternal.

We have very beautiful bad weather here at present - rain, wind, thunder - but with splendid effects; that's why I like it.

I do not intend to spare myself, not to avoid emotions or difficulties. I don't care much whether I live a longer or shorter time... the world concerns me only in so far as I feel a certain debt toward it, because I have walked on this earth for thirty years, and out of gratitude I want to leave some souvenir.

If I succeed in putting some warmth and love into the work, then it will find friends. Carrying on working is the

I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.

Great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed.

Both she and I have grief enough and trouble enough, but as for regrets – neither of us have any.

Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.

We spent our whole lives in unconsous excercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words

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.

So let us go forward quietly, each on his own path, forever making for the light.

I would like to leave this world and never return. I severed my ear, but how I wish that I had severed my heart. I shall never amount to anything.

Whatever plan one makes, there is a hidden difficulty somewhere.

The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts.

It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.

One of the hardest things to do is to paint darkness which nonetheless has light in it.

In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.

I cannot help thinking that the best way of knowing God is to love many things. Love this friend, this person, this thing, whatever you like, and you will be on the right road to understanding Him better.

I'll start with small things.

Purity of soul and impurity of body can go together.

I want to get to the point where people say of my work, that man feels deeply.

Bookstores always remind me that there are good things in this world.

To know life, one must love many things.

One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well, just as one can say comforting things in music.

In an artist's life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone.

You have to first experience what you want to express

But on the road that I'm on I must continue; if I do nothing, if I don't study, if I don't keep on trying, then I'm lost, then woe betide me. That's how I see this, to keep on, keep on, that's what's needed.

It's as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint it. There is the art of lines and colours, but the art of words exists too, and will never be less important.

To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace

What a simple thing death is, just as simple as the falling of an autumn leaf.

Sometimes art seems to be something very sublime, and, as you say, something sacred.

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.

Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.

When using colors to recreate a general harmony of tones in nature, one loses it by painfully exact imitation. One keeps it by recreating in an equivalent color range, and that may not be exactly, or far from exactly, like the model.

It is not only by one's impulses that one achieves greatness, but also by patiently filing away the steel wall that separates what one feels from what one is capable of doing.

The world concerns me only in so far as I feel a certain indebtedness and duty toward it because I have walked this earth for thirty years, and, out of gratitude, want to leave some souvenir in the shape of drawings or pictures — not made to please a certain taste in art, but to express a sincere human feeling.

Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language.

Drawing is the root of everything.

If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, thatit is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. 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.

I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.

Conscience is a man's compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one must try to follow its direction.

I wish they would take me as I am.

There is nothing more beautiful than nature early in the morning.

One of the reasons why I have no regular job, and why I have not had a regular job for years, is quite simply that my ideas differ from those of the gentlemen who hand out the jobs to individuals who think as they do. It is not just a question of my appearance, which is what they have sanctimoniously reproached me with. It goes deeper, I do assure you.

But you must love with a sublime , genuine , profound sympathy , with devotion, with intelligence , and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. That will lead to God , that will lead to an unshakeable faith .

Often whole days pass without my speaking to anyone, except to ask for diner or coffee. And it has been like that form the beginning.

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.

Still, there is a calm, pure harmony, and music inside of me.