Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

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.

~ 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.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

There is safety in the very heart of danger.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

How right it is to love flowers and the greenery of pines and ivy and hawthorn hedges, they have been with us from the very beginning.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I dream my painting and then I paint my dream.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

It's 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.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

~ 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 way to know life is to love many things.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

~ 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

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

~ 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

Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.

~ 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

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

~ 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 often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

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

~ Vincent Van Gogh

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination do not become the slave of your model.

~ 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

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

~ Vincent Van Gogh