Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853–90) was a Dutch painter. He is now considered one of the most eminent of post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated in his lifetime.
Van Gogh was initially a preacher in a mining community in southern Belgium and decided to become an artist at the age of 27. He moved around Europe, teaching himself to draw and paint, and taking financial support from his younger brother Theo.
Van Gogh completed more than 2,100 works, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, and sketches. After years of depression and frequent bouts of mental illness, he cut off part of his ear. At age 37, he shot himself, just when his work was beginning to be acknowledged.
Van Gogh remained poor and practically unknown throughout his life. He wrote thousands of letters to his brother Theo throughout his life. His post-impressionist work was deeply influenced by contact with impressionist painting and Japanese woodcuts. His most famous pictures include several studies of sunflowers. His paintings, notable for their beauty, emotion, and color, and a unique sense of observation, greatly influenced 20th-century art.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by 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.
—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
I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, 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 I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Love
If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint… and that voice will be silenced.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Self-talk, Confidence
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
Topics: Friendship
But are not this struggle and even the mistakes one may make better, and do they not develop us more, than if we kept systematically away from emotions?
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Emotions, Instincts
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
Topics: Emotions
If one were to say but few words, though ones with meaning, one would do better than to say many that were only empty sounds, and just as easy to utter as they were of little use.
—Vincent van Gogh
The Mediterranean has the color of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet, you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing reflection has taken on a tint of rose or gray.
—Vincent van Gogh
If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Maturity
I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm — but that’s a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.
—Vincent van Gogh
Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.
—Vincent van Gogh
One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Soul
A weaver who has to direct and to interweave a great many little threads has no time to philosophize about it, but rather he is so absorbed in his work that he doesn’t think but acts, and he feels how things must go more than he can explain it.
—Vincent van Gogh
Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Love
Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.
—Vincent van Gogh
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Art, Painters, Painting
It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Books
I wish they would only take me as I am.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Wishes, Acceptance, One liners
If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Mastery, Understanding, Excellence
If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: The Artist, Dreams
It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one’s youth.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Youth, Experience
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Courage, Courage to Begin, Bravery
What is true is that I have at times earned my own crust of bread, and at other times a friend has given it to me out of the goodness of his heart. I have lived whatever way I could, for better or for worse, taking things just as they came.
—Vincent van Gogh
The thing has already taken form in my mind before I start it. The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. I say this because I want you to know that if you see something worthwhile in what I am doing, it is not by accident but because of real direction and purpose.
—Vincent van Gogh
When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.
—Vincent van Gogh
If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Gardening
The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Feelings, Love
A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Photography, Goodness, Deeds, Good Deeds
Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Humanity
The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Love
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Painting, Painters, Public opinion, Art
Some good must come by clinging to the right. Conscience is a man’s compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities in directing one’s course by it, still one must try to follow its direction.
—Vincent van Gogh
I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Dedication, Commitment
It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Arts, Artists, Photography, Art
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
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Art, Night
How can I be useful. Of what service can I be. There is something inside me. What can it be?
—Vincent van Gogh
I dream my painting and paint my dream.
—Vincent van Gogh
Topics: Dream, Vision
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