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| I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| By working hard, old man, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it . . . . |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that when we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation - of loneliness, of poverty and misery, the end of all things, or their extreme - then rises in our mind the thought of God. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| One must work and dare if one really wants to live. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Oh! I must somehow manage to do a figure in a few strokes. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| If I were to think of and dwell on disastrous possibilities, I could do nothing. I throw myself headlong into my work, and come up again with my studies |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I see more and more that my work goes infinitely better when I am properly fed, and the paints are there, and the studio and all that. But have I set my heart on my work being a success? A thousand times no. I wish I could manage to make you really understand that when you give money to artists, you are yourself doing an artist's work, and that I only want my pictures to be of such a quality that you will not be too dissatisfied with your work. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| There is no blue without yellow and without orange. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be? |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| You write in your letter something which I sometimes feel also: Sometimes I do not know how I shall pull through. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.' |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| If you hear a voice within you saying, ''You are not a painter,'' then by all means paint...and that voice will be silenced. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Conscience is a man's compass. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I wish they would only take me as I am. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill- it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| In painting I want to say something comforting in the way that music is comforting. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I have ... a terrible need ... shall I say the word? ... of religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| 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. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I consciously choose the dog's path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter... |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate efforts to force the work I am doing now upon the public would be pretty useless. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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| The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
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