27 Quotes Tagged: van-gogh

I’m happy to just be able to come across things. I don’t need to be happy. Happiness is a kind of cheap word. Let’s face it, I’m not the kind of cat that’s going to cut off an ear if I can’t do something. I would commit suicide. I would shoot myself in the brain if things got bad. I would jump from a window…you know, I can think about death openly. It’s nothing to fear. It’s nothing sacred. I’ve seen so many people die. Life’s not sacred either

What I am in the eyes of most people — a nonetity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short, the lowest of the low.

People are fond of spouting out the old cliché about how Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. Somehow his example serves to justify to us, decades later, that there is merit in utter failure.
Perhaps, but the man did commit suicide. The market for his work took off big-time shortly after his death. Had he decided to stick around another few decades he most likely would’ve entered old age quite prosperous. And sadly for failures everywhere, the cliché would have lost a lot of its power.
The fact is, the old clichés work for us in abstract terms, but they never work out in real life quite the same way. Life is messy; clichés are clean and tidy.

Dünyanın beni ilgilendiren tek bir yanı var: Otuz yıl üstünde yaşadığım bu toprağa karşı duyduğum belirli bir borç ve yüklendiğime inandığım bir görev; duyduğum bu şükran borcuna karşılık desen ya da resim olarak birkaç andaç bırakmak istiyorum geride -birtakım sanat akımlarının hoşuna girmek için değil, gerçek, içten, insancıl duyguları dile getirmek için. İşte, yaşamdaki amacım bu.

Dans chaque vie où de la pluie doit tomber, quelques jours seront sombres et lugubres – c'est vrai, il ne peut en aller autrement, et pourtant je me demande si le nombre de jours sombres et lugubres peut parfois devenir trop grand ? La lutte intérieure de Van Gogh: Sa vie, son œuvre et sa maladie mentale - Liesbeth Heenk

How much sadness there is in life. Still, it won't do to become depressed, one should turn to other things, and the right thing is work, but there are times when one can only find peace of mind in the realization: I, too, shall not be spared by unhappiness.

...gerçeklikten daha gerçek olan nedir, yaşamın kendisinden daha çok yaşam nerededir? Ve bizler, elimizden geldiğince yaşamaya çalışan bizler, neden daha yoğun yaşayamıyoruz?

Ve kişi, kadınları çalışmalarının dışında tutmakla çağdışı bir tutum içine girmiş olur.
Her yerde aynı bu, ister kentte ol ister kırsal yörelerde; zamana ayak uydurmak istiyorsan eğer, kadınları mutlaka hesaba katacaksın.

The sadness will last forever.

For me, life may well continue in solitude. I have never perceived those to whom I have been most attached other than as through a glass, darkly.

And the memories of all we have loved stay and come back to us in the evening of our life. They are not dead but sleep, and it is well to gather a treasure of them.

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

My great longing is to learn to make those very incorrectnesses, those deviations, remodellings, changes of reality, so that they may become, yes, untruth if you like - but more true than the literal truth.

I would sooner paint people's eyes than cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is lacking in a cathedral - however solemn and impressive it may be. To my mind a man's soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a streetwalker, is more interesting.

How right it is to love flowers and the greenery of pines and ivy and hawthorn hedges; they have been with us from the very beginning.