Quotes by Vincent van Gogh

There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite himself, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. 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! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another idler. If you like you may take me for one of those.

..it has always been so much my desire to paint for those who don’t know the artistic side of a painting.

You can live to be old or young, but youll always have moments when you lose your head.

There is safety in the very heart of danger.

In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

As a painter I shall never signify anything of importance. I feel it absolutely.

One of the most difficult things to do is to paint darkness which nonetheless has light in it.

Painting is a faith and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

Still there is a calm pure harmony and music inside of me.

I am seeking I am striving I am in it with all my heart.

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.

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?

One may have a blazing hearth in ones soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it.

I dream my painting and then I paint my dream.

Great things are not something accidental but must certainly be willed.

Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.

Its as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint it. There is the art of lines and colours but the art of words exists too and will never be less important.