Selected Quotes By Van Gogh
"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."
Van Gogh, Art
"So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me and reminded me that there are good things in the world."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again."
Van Gogh, Mistakes
"It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire."
Van Gogh, Goals
"Don’t lose heart if it’s very difficult at times, everything will come out all right and nobody can, in the beginning, do as he wishes."
Van Gogh, Life
"What preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way?"
Van Gogh, Life
"Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it."
Van Gogh, Life
"Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more."
Van Gogh, Art
"I am crazy about two colors: carmine and cobalt. Cobalt is a divine color and there is nothing so beautiful for creating atmosphere. Carmine is as warm and lively as wine… the same with emerald green."
Van Gogh, Art
"Suffice it to say that black and white are also colors… for their simultaneous contrast is as striking as that of green and red, for instance."
Van Gogh, Art
"You can’t be at the Pole and at the Equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be colour."
Van Gogh, Art
"Drawing is the root of everything, and the time spent on that is actually all profit."
Van Gogh, Art
"I haven’t got it yet, but I’m hunting it and fighting for it, I want something serious, something fresh—something with soul in it! Onward, onward."
Van Gogh, Goals
"Sometimes I long so much to do landscape, just as one would go for a long walk to refresh oneself, and in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul."
Van Gogh, Art
"I assure you that there’s a lot involved in compositions with figures. … It’s like weaving… you must control and keep an eye on several things at once."
Van Gogh, Art
"As you can see, I am immersing myself in color—I’ve held back from that until now; and I don’t regret it."
Van Gogh, Art
"I’ll start with small things."
Van Gogh, Goals
"Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all."
Van Gogh, Life
"I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone."
Van Gogh, Art
"As a suffering creature, I cannot do without something greater than I – something that is my life – the power to create."
Van Gogh, Life
"As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed."
Van Gogh, Problems
"I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate."
Van Gogh, Life
"I hope to depart in no other way than looking back with love and wistfulness and thinking, oh paintings that I would have made.."
Van Gogh, Art
"I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening…like a light in the midst of the darkness."
Van Gogh, Art
"When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars."
Van Gogh, Belief
"I do not know myself how I paint it. I sit down with a white board before the spot that strikes me. I look at what is before my eyes, and say to myself, that white board must become something."
Van Gogh, Art
"I’ve just kept on ceaselessly painting in order to learn painting."
Van Gogh, Art
"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul."
Van Gogh, Art
"The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting."
Van Gogh, Art
"One must work and dare if one really wants to live."
Van Gogh, Work, Courage
"So let us go forward, quietly, each on his own path, forever making for the light."
Van Gogh, Goals
"Occasionally, in times of worry, I’ve longed to be stylish, but on second thought I say no—just let me be myself—and express rough, yet true things with rough workmanship."
Van Gogh, Art
"Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy."
Van Gogh, Love
"But you must love with a high, serious intimate sympathy, with a will, with intelligence, and you must always seek to know more thoroughly, better, and more."
Van Gogh, Love, Goals
"No, no thought to the winnings. One loves because one loves."
Van Gogh, Love
"I will not live without love."
Van Gogh, Life, Love
"Conscience is a man’s compass."
Van Gogh, Life
"One must never let the fire go out in one’s soul, but keep it burning."
Van Gogh, Goals
"Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures."
Van Gogh, Success
"Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague."
Van Gogh, Goals
"I take great care of myself by carefully shutting myself away."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"In spite of everything, I shall rise again."
Van Gogh, Life
"I wish they would only take me as I am."
Van Gogh, Society
"There is peace even in the storm."
Van Gogh, Happiness
"I’m drawing a great deal and think it’s getting better."
Van Gogh, Art
"I now consider myself to be at the beginning of the beginning of making something serious."
Van Gogh, Goals
"There is no blue without yellow and without orange."
Van Gogh, Art
"I would rather die of passion than of boredom."
Van Gogh, Life
"It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right."
Van Gogh, Life
"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."
Van Gogh, Art
"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."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."
Van Gogh, Belief
"The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too."
Van Gogh, Life
"I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it."
Van Gogh, Goals
"I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove."
Van Gogh, Criticism
"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly'."
Van Gogh, Art
"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
Van Gogh, Success
"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."
Van Gogh, Work
"If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere."
Van Gogh, Life
"I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart."
Van Gogh, Goals
"If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning."
Van Gogh, Wealth
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"
Van Gogh, Courage
"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."
Van Gogh, Friendship
"What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum."
Van Gogh, Art
"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."
Van Gogh, Life
"I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process."
Van Gogh, Art
"If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."
Van Gogh, Art
"Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it."
Van Gogh, Life
"I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream."
Van Gogh, Intelligence/Wisdom
"A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke."
Van Gogh, Art, Love
"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."
Van Gogh, Art, Love
"...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?"
Van Gogh, Art
"Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all."
Van Gogh, Life
"I dream my painting and I paint my dream."
Van Gogh, Art
"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."