Vincent van Gogh Quotes

The more you love, the more you suffer

It is true, however, that first impressions often change, for we know only too well that all is not gold that glitters and that though there may be a bright dawn, there is also a dark midnight and a burning, oppressive heat at noon.

Quanto più cercheremo di specializzarci in una data attività e in una data arte e adotteremo un metodo di
pensare e di agire relativamente indipendente e ci atterremo a regole fisse, tanto più si rinsalderà il
carattere e non per questo correremo il rischio di fossilizzarci.
È saggio agire così perché la vita è breve e il tempo passa rapidamente: se ci si perfeziona in una cosa
sola in modo da impadronirsene bene si acquista in più la comprensione e la conoscenza di molte altre
cose. [...] Colui che preferisse la solitudine e il lavoro in raccoglimento e si accontentasse di uno scarso
numero di amici, sarebbe proprio quello che, con la massima padronanza, saprebbe vivere con gli altri
uomini.

Love is the best and the noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire.

If you saw the first painted color-studies that I made when I came here to Nuenen - and the present canvas - side by side - I think you'd see that as far as colour is concerned - things have livened up. I think that the question of the breaking of colours in the relationships of the colours will occupy you too one day. For as an art expert and critic, one must also, it seems to me - be sure of one's ground and have certain convictions. At least for one's own pleasure and to be able to give reasons, and at the same time one must be able to explain it in a few words to others, who sometimes turn to someone like you for enlightenment when they want to know something more about art.

Do you know what I have been involuntarily thinking, that in the first period of an artist’s life, one unconsciously makes it very hard for oneself – by a feeling of not being able to master the work – by an uncertainty as to whether one will ever master it – by a great ambition to make progress, but a lack of self-confidence – one cannot banish a certain feeling of agitation, and one hurries oneself though one doesn’t like to be hurried . . .
This cannot be helped, and it is a time which one must go through, and which in my opinion cannot and should not be otherwise.

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.

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

In order to work and to become an artist one needs love. At least, one who wants sentiment in his work must in the first place feel it himself, and live with his heart.

Indeed, illness or death holds no terror for me, but happily for us, ambition is not compatible with the callings we follow. There are so many people in all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest, who believe that, anyway.

Je t'ai envoyé aujourd'hui mon portrait à moi; il faut le regarder pendant quelque temps, tu verras, j'espère que ma physionomie s'est bien calmée, quoique le regard soit vague davantage qu'auparavant, à ce qui me parait.

If you don’t have a dog — at least one — there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.

how difficult it is to be simple

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.

Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.