Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I am so angry with myself because I cannot do what I should like to do, and at such a moment one feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The difficulties are indeed numerous and great, and cannot be overcome at once. To make progress is a kind of miner's work; it doesn't advance as quickly as one would like, and as others also expect, but as one stands before such a task, the basic necessities are patience and faithfulness. In fact, I do not think much about the difficulties, because if one thought of them too much one would get stunned or disturbed. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

But precisely because love is so strong, we are, especially in our youth...usually not strong enough to maintain a straight course.

- Vincent van Gogh ~ Deborah Heiligman

You have first to experience what you want to express. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The more ugly, old, nasty, ill, and poor I become the more I want to get my own back by producing vibrant, well-arranged, radiant colour. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

What I am 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 like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

There are often beams in our eye that we know not of. Let us therefore ask that our eye may become single, for then we ourselves shall become wholly single. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

There are idlers and idlers, who form a contrast. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

One association with the arts that I vividly remember was a magazine called Normal Instructor, a teachers' magazine, that Miss George would hold up with illustrations of great artworks like [Vincent] van Gogh and Rembrandt [van Rijn]. ~ Paul Smith

I shouldn't precisely have chosen madness if there had been any choice, but once such a thing has taken hold of you, you can't very well get out of it. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

It is the painting that makes me so happy these days. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

That thought, I can't find the right words, is based not on something negative but on something positive. On the positive awareness that art is something great and higher than our own skill or knowledge or learning. That art is something which though produced by human hands, is not wrought by hands alone, but wells up from a deeper source, from man's soul, while much of the proficiency and technical expertise associated with art reminds me of what would be called self-righteousness in religion. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The uglier, older, meaner, iller, poorer I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by doing brilliant color, well arranged, resplendent. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

What would be of life if we didn´t have the courage of doing something new? ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

In my view, I am often immensely rich, not in money, but (although just now perhaps not all the time) rich because I have found my metier, something I can devote myself to heart and soul and that gives inspiration and meaning to my life. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

To express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is nothing in that of stereoscopic realism, but is it not something that actually exists? ~ Vincent Van Gogh

But for one's health as you say, it is very necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn't come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

So what do you want? Does what happens inside show on the outside? There is such a great fire in one's soul, and yet nobody ever comes to warm themselves there, and passersby see nothing but a little smoke coming from the top of the chimney, and go on their way. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Do go on doing a lot of walking and keep up your love of nature, for that is the right way to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love her and teach us to see. And there are painters who never do anything that is no good... ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. - Vincent Van Gogh ~ Laurie A. Helgoe

Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

It is the language of nature to which one has to listen. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

You can feel the stars and the infinity of the sky since life, in spite of everything, is like a dream. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I rage against Vincent van Gogh for needing to die at 37, after painting for only ten years. ~ Jerry Saltz

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Recently I've been working very hard and quickly; in this way I try to express the desperately fast passage of things in modern life.

Yesterday, in the rain, I painted a large landscape with fields as far as the eye can see, viewed from a height, different kinds of greenery, a dark green field of potatoes, the rich purple earth between the regular rows of plants, to one side a field of peas white with bloom, a field of clover with pink flowers and the little figure of a mower, a field of tall, ripe, fawn-coloured grass, then some wheat, some poplars, on the horizon a last line of blue hills at the foot of which a train is passing, leaving an immense trail of white smoke over the greenery. A white road crosses the canvas, on the road a little carriage and some white houses with bright red roofs alongside a road. Fine drizzle streaks the whole with blue or grey lines. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

There is safety in the very heart of danger. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

(D)ying is hard, but living is harder still.

- Vincent van Gogh ~ Deborah Heiligman

Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

So don't study and swot too much, for that makes one sterile. Enjoy yourself too much rather than too little, and don't take art or love too seriously- there is very little one can do about it ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

And although it was in a hospital that she lay and I sat next to her - it is always that eternal poetry of Christmas night with the infant in the stable, as the old Dutch painters conceived it and MIllet and Breton - a light in the darkness, the brightness in the middle of a dark night. And so I hung a large etching after Rembrandt over it, the two women by the cradle, one of them reading from the Bible by candlelight, while the great shadows cast a deep chiaroscuro over the whole room. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I prefer painting people's eyes to cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and imposing the latter may be - a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a street walker, is more interesting to me. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

To express a marriage of two complementary colors, their mingling and their opposition, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones ... ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Purity of soul and impurity of body can go together. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life, the power to create. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

To understand blue you must first understand yellow and orange ~ Vincent Van Gogh

What has changed is that my life then was less difficult and my future seemingly less gloomy, but as far as my inner self, my way of looking at things and of thinking is concerned, that has not changed. But if there has indeed been a change, then it is that I think, believe and love more seriously now what I thought, believed and loved even then. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

One of the most beautiful things to do is to paint darkness, which nevertheless has light in it. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Someday death will take us to another star. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

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

Nature always begins by resisting the artist, but he who really takes it seriously does not allow that resistance to put him off his stride; on the contrary, it is that much more of a stimulus to fight for victory. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Oh! I must somehow manage to do a figure in a few strokes. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

If your inner voice is telling you that you can't paint, by all means, hurry up and paint and silence the voice. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I use color in a completely arbitrary way in order to express myself powerfully. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I'm such a nobody. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Do not think too deeply about these things - gradually they will become clearer to you ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

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

Do you know that drawing with words is also an art ... ? ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Watching the news inspires me to keep going and reminds me why I should never complain. I'm inspired by those who don't let others define them: Martin Luther King Jr., James Dean, Vincent Van Gogh, Hillary Clinton, Tennessee Williams, director Steve McQueen. They've all changed the conversation by making their voices heard. ~ Robert Piper

How to achieve such anomalies, such alterations and re-fashionings of reality so what comes out of it are lies, if you like, but lies that are more than literal truth. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I began to paint again, even though I could barely hold the brush, but knowing exactly what I wanted to paint, I began three more large canvases ... of large wheat fields under cloudy skies, and it did not take a great deal to express sadness and loneliness ... I believe these paintings say what words cannot. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

If only we try to live righteously, we shall fare well, even though we are bound to encounter genuine sadness and real disappointments and shall probably commit real mistakes and do things that are wrong, but it is certainly better to be ardent in spirit, even though one makes more mistakes, than narrow-minded and overly-cautious. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

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

Ah! Portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

When I have a model who is quiet and steady and with whom I am acquainted, then I draw repeatedly 'til there is one drawing that is different from the rest, which does not look like an ordinary study, but more typical and with more feeling. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

One cannot always tell what it is that keeps us shut in, confines us, seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: My God! Is it for long, is it for ever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. - Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother, July 1880 ~ Andre Agassi

It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, `The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good.' But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is the thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Surely the true path is to dive deep into nature. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Sometimes, dear brother, I know so well what I want. I am quite able to do without God, both in my life and in my painting, but what I cannot do without, unwell as I am, is something greater than myself, which is my life, the power to create. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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 ~ Vincent Van Gogh

There's no question about it. The arts are an extremely high-risk situation. People are willing to take these extraordinary chances to become writers, musicians or painters, and because of them we have a culture. If this ever stops, our culture will die, because most of our culture, in fact, has been created by people that got paid nothing for it-- People like Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent van Gogh or Mozart. So, yes, it's a very foolish thing to do, notoriously foolish, but it seems human to attempt it anyway. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

By working hard, old man, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it ... ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I hope to depart in no other way than looking back with love and wistfulness and thinking, oh paintings that I would have made.. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

What color is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

[Vincent Van Gogh] 'Oh Theo, don't you think I'm the black sheep, do you?'
[Theo Van Gogh] 'I'm more inclined to consider you as an ass.' ~ Irving Stone

What the world thought made little difference. Rembrandt had to
paint. Whether he painted well or badly didn't matter; painting was the
stuff that held him together as a man. The chief value of art, Vincent, lies
in the expression it gives to the artist. Rembrandt fulfilled what he knew
to be his life purpose; that justified him. Even if his work had been
worthless, he would have been a thousand times more successful than if
he had put down his desire and become the richest merchant in
Amsterdam. (Mendes Da Costa ~ Irving Stone

The sight of stars makes me dream. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

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. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Well, do you know what I hope for, once I allow myself to begin to hope? [ ... ] That you find in your love for people something not only to work for, but to comfort and restore you when there is a need. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

What lives in art and is eternally living, is first of all the painter and then the painting. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

That I was not suited to commerce or academic study in no way proves that I should also be unfit to be a painter. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

To paint nature you must be in it a long time. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The great artist is the simplifier. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I lost my job as an art salesman. It was the customer's fault. He wanted to buy the wrong paintings. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

When Van Gogh painted The Starry Night as a swirling mass of cosmic energy, he may have been painting what he saw with neurotic eyes, but he was also painting what he saw with transcendent eyes. The first gave his painting mere form, the second gave it formless, universal emotion that connects directly to the viewer. ~ Amit Goswami