Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.

I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.

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

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

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.

I am always doing what I can't do so I may learn how to do it.

Art is to console those who are broken by life.

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

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.

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.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.

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.

I wish they would take me as I am.

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.

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

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.

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

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.

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.

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one's youth.

I confess I do not know why, but looking at the stars always makes me dream.

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.

Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.

It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that, whenever we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation—of loneliness, poverty, and misery, the end and extreme of things—the thought of God comes into one's mind.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

The best way to know God is to love many things.

Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.

Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

How rich art is, if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never empty of thoughts or truly lonely, never alone.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

Modern reality has got such a hold on us that... when we attempt to reconstruct the ancient days in our thoughts...the minor events of our lives tear us away from our meditations, and... thrust us back into our personal [problems]

Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people

Love is eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence.

It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill - it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy.

Conscience is a man's compass.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?