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Quotes by Vincent van Gogh


Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
– Vincent van Gogh
A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
– Vincent van Gogh
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
Conscience is a man's compass.
– Vincent van Gogh
Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.
– Vincent van Gogh
Happiness... it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
– Vincent van Gogh
How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?
– Vincent van Gogh
I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.
– Vincent van Gogh
I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.
– Vincent van Gogh
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
– Vincent van Gogh
If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?
– Vincent van Gogh
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
If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
– Vincent van Gogh
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
Love is something eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence.
– Vincent van Gogh
Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
– 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
There is no blue without yellow and without orange.
– Vincent van Gogh
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
– Vincent van Gogh
When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.
– Vincent van Gogh
I wish they would only take me as I am.
– Vincent van Gogh
For my own part, I declare I know nothing whatever about it. But to look at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. One thing undoubtedly true in this reasoning is this: that while we are alive we cannot get to a star, any more than when we are dead we can take the train.
– Vincent van Gogh
One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it. Passersby see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way.
– Vincent van Gogh
Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.
– Vincent van Gogh
The way to know life is to love many things.
– Vincent van Gogh
The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.
– Vincent van Gogh
Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.
– Vincent van Gogh
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
– Vincent van Gogh
One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
– Vincent van Gogh
In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
– Vincent van Gogh
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.
– Vincent van Gogh
I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
– Vincent van Gogh
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 am, which is my life, the power to create.
– Vincent van Gogh
I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.
– Vincent van Gogh
Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.
– Vincent van Gogh
An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.
– Vincent van Gogh