VvVincent van Gogh

97 collected words

Vincent van Gogh

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

I thought I would be understood without words.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

02Undated

Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

03Undated

I often think of you all, one cannot do what one wants in life. The more you feel attached to a spot, the more ruthlessly you are compelled to leave it, but the memories remain, and one remembers - as in a looking glass, darkly - one's absent friends.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

04Undated

The sadness will last forever.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

05Undated

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.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

06Undated

Well, what shall I say; our inward thoughts, do they ever show outwardly? There may be a great fire in our soul, but no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a little bit of smoke coming through the chimney, and pass on their way.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

07Undated

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 / quote

08Undated

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.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

09Undated

I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

10Undated

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 / quote

11Undated

It's better to have a gay life of it than to commit suicide.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

12Undated

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 / quote

13Undated

There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite himself, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another idler. If you like you may take me for one of those.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

14Undated

..it has always been so much my desire to paint for those who don’t know the artistic side of a painting.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

15Undated

You can live to be old or young, but you'll always have moments when you lose your head.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

16Undated

There is safety in the very heart of danger.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

17Undated

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

Vincent van Gogh / quote

18Undated

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

19Undated

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 / quote

20Undated

As a painter I shall never signify anything of importance. I feel it absolutely.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

21Undated

One of the most difficult things to do is to paint darkness which nonetheless has light in it.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

22Undated

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

Vincent van Gogh / quote

23Undated

Still there is a calm pure harmony and music inside of me.

Vincent van Gogh / quote

24Undated

I feel the need of relations and friendship of affection of friendly intercourse. ... I cannot miss these things without feeling as does any other intelligent man a void and a deep need.

Vincent van Gogh / quote