Vincent van Gogh quotes - page 10

So please don't think that I am renouncing anything, I am reasonably faithful in my unfaithfulness and though I have changed, I am the same, and 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, how can I become more knowledgeable and study some subject or other in depth? (Vincent van Gogh)
You know what I want. If I may become a clergyman, if I fulfill that position so that my work is equal to that of our Father [who was a clergy-man], then I shall thank God. I have good hope that I shall succeed, it was once said to me by someone who was further on in life than I, and who was no stranger in Jerusalem:... I believe that you are a Christian, you see, it was so good for me to hear those words... It is good to believe that there is a God who knows what we need, better than we know it ourselves, and who helps us when we need help. It is also good to believe that, just as in the olden days, now, too, an angel is not far from those who feel godly sorrow... I've carefully read the story of Elijah so often, and so often has it given me strength up to now:.
Vincent van Gogh
It seemed to you perhaps as if the sun shone brighter and everything had acquired a new charm. At any rate, I believe this is always the effect of a serious love and that's a delightful thing.
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.
Vincent van Gogh
People are often unable to do anything, imprisoned as they are in I don't know what kind of terrible, terrible, oh such terrible cage. I do know that there is a release, the belated release.
Vincent van Gogh
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
That God of the clergymen, He is for me as dead as a doornail. But am I an atheist for all that?
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.
Vincent van Gogh
Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
Vincent van Gogh
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!
Vincent van Gogh
I see completely different things in the Bible than Pa sees. (Vincent van Gogh)
Gauguin interests me very much as a man - very much.
Vincent van Gogh
I couldn't tell you how happy I feel to have taken up drawing again. It had already been on my mind for a long time, but I always saw the thing as impossible and beyond my reach.
Vincent van Gogh
I have often neglected my appearance. I admit it, and I also admit that it is "shocking."
Vincent van Gogh
The work is an absolute necessity for me.
Vincent van Gogh
I've experienced this in these crises to such a point that all the people I see then seem to me, even if I recognize them – which isn't always the case – to come from very far away and to be entirely different from what they are in reality..
Vincent van Gogh
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.
Vincent van Gogh
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Vincent van Gogh
What is done in love is done well.
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
It must be good to die in the knowledge that one has done some truthful work... and to know that, as a result, one will live on in the memory of at least a few and leave a good example for those who come after. (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
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.
Vincent van Gogh
My dear Theo, Thanks for your letter of this morning. Yesterday I saw the Corot exhibition. It included a painting of the 'Mount of Olives'; I'm glad he painted that. On the right, a group of olive trees, dark against the darkening blue sky; in the background hills covered with shrubs and a couple of tall trees, above them the evening star.... I've also seen the Louvre and the Luxembourg, as you can imagine. The Ruisdaels in the Louvre are magnificent, especially 'The bush', 'The breakwater' and 'The ray of sunlight.
Vincent van Gogh
What surprising fellows those French painters are. A Millet, Delacroix, Corot, Troyon, Daubigny, Rousseau, and a Daumier.... Something else about Delacroix - he had a discussion with a friend about the question of working absolutely from nature, and said on that occasion that one should take one's 'studies' from nature - but that the 'actual painting' had to be made 'by heart'. This friend was walking along the boulevard when they had this discussion - which was already fairly heated. When they parted the other man was still not entirely persuaded. After they parted, Delacroix let him stroll on for a bit - then (making a trumpet of his two hands) bellowed after him in the middle of the street - to the consternation of the worthy passers-by: 'By heart! By heart!
Vincent van Gogh