Vincent van Gogh quotes - page 11

Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.... I have not yet had enough experience with women. What we were taught about them in our youth is quite wrong, that is sure, it was quite contrary to nature, and one must try to learn from experience. It would be very pleasant if everybody were good, and the world were good, etc. (Vincent van Gogh)
To stroll on wharves, and in alleys and in streets and in the houses, waiting-rooms, even saloons, that is not a pleasant pastime unless for an artist. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
When I was.... in the surroundings of pictures and things of art... I then had a violent passion for them... And I do not repent it, for even now, far from that land, I am often homesick for the land of pictures. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
And my intention is to try to form a collection of many such things, which would not be quite unworthy of the title 'heads of the people. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
Well, well, there are moments when I am wrung by enthusiasm or madness or prophecy like a Greek oracle on a tripod... Everyone suffers here either from fever, or hallucination, or madness, we understand each other like members of the same family. View quote
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. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners. View quote
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. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
You have first to experience what you want to express. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone. (Vincent van Gogh)
If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
There is nothing more beautiful than nature early in the morning. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
Still, there is a calm, pure harmony, and music inside of me. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
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. View quote
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. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible - and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger makes haste in what he does. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
You can't be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there maybe some truth in it- do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it 'the longing for God,' which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good Is it 'the longing for God' which leads us to make a choice which we never regret Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
My opinion is that the best thing would be to work on till art lovers feel drawn toward it of their own accord, instead of having to praise or to explain it. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
I want to do drawings which touch people...In figure or landscape I should wish to express, not sentimental melancholy, but serious sorrow. (Vincent van Gogh)
What a splendid thing watercolor is to express atmosphere and distance, so that the figure is surrounded by air and can breathe in it. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
The majority of (painters), because they aren't colorists, do not see yellow, orange or sulphur in the South (of France) and they call a painter mad if he sees with eyes other than theirs. View quote
Vincent van Gogh
How to achieve such anomalies, such alterations and re-fashionings of reality so what comes out of it are lies, if you like, but lies that are more than literal truth. View quote
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. View quote
Vincent van Gogh