Looking for the best and inspirational Vincent Van Gogh quotes?
Vincent van Gogh was a dutch post-impressionist painter whose work is among the most famous in history. He used painting as his primary means of expression and created some of the best-known works of art in Western art history.
He was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert in the Netherlands to an artistically talented but financially struggling family. He grew up working for a firm of art dealers, but his love for painting led him to become an artist. His artistic career started after moving to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and met Paul Gauguin. In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles with Gauguin and then visited Algeria a year later, where he sought inspiration from the landscape around him.
He is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art. And his limited artistic training, his innovative and unique painting style changed the way we perceive painters forever.
Check out his inspiring quotes that will change your life for the better.
75 Most Famous Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
“Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.”
“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke”
“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
“I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.”
“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”
“Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.”
“I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.”
“I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.”
“What is done in love is done well.”
“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm fearsome, but could never see that the dangers were a reason to continue strolling on the beach.”
“I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.”
“I haven’t got it yet, but I’m hunting it and fighting for it, I want something serious, something fresh—something with soul in it! Onward, onward.”
“If you hear a voice within you saying, ”You are not a painter,” then by all means paint… and that voice will be silenced.”
“If you hear a voice within you say – You cannot paint – then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
“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.”
.“One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”
“Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.”
“The victory one would gain after a whole life of work and effort is better than one that is gained sooner.”
“There is peace even in the storm”
“Be of good heart if things sometimes get difficult, everything will come right later on, and no one can do what he really wants in the beginning.”
“The heart of men is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.”
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
“One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”
“Don’t lose heart if it’s very difficult at times, everything will come out all right and nobody can in the beginning do as he wishes.”
“For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.”
“I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”
“I work as diligently on my canvases as the laborers do in their fields.”
“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
“Conscience is a man’s compass”
“The lamps are burning and the starry sky is over it all.”
“Everyone who works with love and intelligence finds in the very sincerity of his love for nature and art a kind of armor against the opinions of other people.”
“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.”
“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”
“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
“Let us keep courage, and try to be patient and gentle. Let us not mind being eccentric, and make a distinction between good and evil.”
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
“Only when I fall do I get up again.”
“It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent.”
“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.”
“I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.”
“As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.”
“Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.”
“Admire more. Most people don’t admire enough.”
“There is no such thing as an ugly woman.”
“I consciously choose the dog’s path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter…”
“One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.”
“. . . The more I think about it the more I feel that there’s nothing more genuinely artistic than to love people.”
“The great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed.”
“I seek, I pursue, my heart is in it.”
“Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.”
“To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life.”
“Two things that remain eternally true and complement each other, in my view are: don’t snuff out your inspiration and power of imagination, don’t become a slave to the model; and, the other, take a model and study it, for otherwise your inspiration won’t take on material form.”
“And the great isn’t something accidental; it must be willed.”
“Conscience is a man’s compass.”
“. . . If I’m no good now, I won’t be any good later either—but if later, then now too. For wheat is wheat, even if it looks like grass at first.”
“I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.”
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
“If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning.”
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
“We spent our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words.”
“Do you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection. Being friends, being brothers, loving, that is what opens the prison, with supreme power, by some magic force. Without these one stays dead. But whenever affection is revived, there life revives.”
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
“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”
“I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm — but that’s a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.”
“Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.”
“A great fire burns within me but no one stops to warm themselves at it. And passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.”
“Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.”
“But the sight of the stars always makes me dream.”
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else but keep heart, it will turn out alright.”
Read More
