Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

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

I dream my painting and I paint my dream.

Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

Admire more. Most people don't admire enough.

The way to know life is to love many things.

A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.

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

There is peace even in the storm.

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

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

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.

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.

...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

I have nature and art and poetry and if that is not enough, what is?

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

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

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

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

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

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

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

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

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

But are not this struggle and even the mistakes one may make better, and do they not develop us more, than if we kept systematically away from emotions?

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

Conscience is a man's compass.

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

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes.

Only when I fall do I get up again.

If you hear a voice within you saying, You are not a painter, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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'm such a nobody.

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

Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For my own part, I declare I know nothing whatever about it.

But to look at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. One thing undoubtedly true in this reasoning is this: that while we are alive we cannot get to a star, any more than when we are dead we can take the train.

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

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

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

I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.