Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
-
But I must work on in full calmness and serenity... The world concerns me only in so far as I feel a certain debt and duty towards it, because I have walked on the 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 tendency in art, but to express a sincere human feeling. So this work is the aim-and through concentration upon that one idea, everything one does is simplified. Now the work goes slowly-a reason the more to lose no time.
-
The worse I get along with people the more I learn to have faith in Nature and concentrate on her.
-
I always think photographs abominable, and I don't like to have them around, particularly not those of persons I know and love. Those photographic portraits wither much sooner than we ourselves do, whereas the painted portrait is a thing which is felt, done with love.
-
Doing little things well is a step toward doing big things better.
-
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.
-
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
-
But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
-
God sends us pieces of art so that we may see ourselves in them
-
If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse.
-
We take death to reach a star
-
There are so many people, especially among our comrades, who imagine that words are nothing - on the contrary, isn't it true that saying a thing well is as interesting and as difficult as painting it?
-
Great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed.
-
Cobalt is a divine color and there is nothing as fine for putting an atmosphere round things. Carmine is the red of wine and is warm and lively like wine. The same goes for emerald green too. It's false economy to dispense with them, with those colors. Cadmium as well.
-
The great artist is the simplifier.
-
An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.
-
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.
-
...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?
-
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.
-
Love a friend, love a wife, something, whatever you like, but one must love with a lofty and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, with intelligence, and one must always try to know deeper, better, and more.
-
If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
-
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.
-
It is no more easy to make a good picture than it is to find a diamond or a pearl. It means trouble and you risk your life for it.
-
Seeing that I am so busily occupied with myself just now, I want to try to paint my self-portrait in writing.
-
But for one's health as you say, it is very necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing.