Quotes by Vincent van Gogh

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke

In would rather die of passion than of boredom.

It is only right and proper to be moved by the Bible, but present-day reality has so strong a hold over us that even when we try to imagine the past the minor events in our lives immediately wrench us out of our musings, and our own adventures throw us back irrevocably upon our personal feelings—joy, boredom, suffering, anger, or a smile.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

Those who love much, do much and accomplish much, and whatever is done with love is done well.... Love is the best and noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire. Happy is he who has loved much, and although he may have wavered and doubted, he has kept that divine spark alive and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be. If only one keeps loving faithfully what is truly worth loving and does not squander ones love on trivial and insignificant and meaningless things then one will gradually obtain more light and grow stronger.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life, the power to create.

Both she and I have grief enough and trouble enough, but as for regrets – neither of us have any.

I thought I would be understood without words.

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

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 - ones absent friends.

The sadness will last forever.

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.

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.

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.

Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what youre put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.

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

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.

Its better to have a gay life of it than to commit suicide.

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.