Quotes from Vincent Van Gogh

Do go on doing a lot of walking and keep up your love of nature, for that is the right way to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love her and teach us to see. And there are painters who never do anything that is no good...

Be of good heart.

Anyone who leads an upright life and experiences real difficulty and disappointment and yet is not crushed by them is worth more than one for whom everything has always been plain sailing and who has known nothing but relative prosperity.

Admire as much as you can, most people don't admire enough.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? If you hear a voice within saying 'You are not a painter' then by all means paint — and that voice will be silenced.

Whoever lives sincerely and encounters much trouble and disappointment, but is not bowed down by them, is worth more than one who has always sailed before the wind and has only known relative prosperity.

I couldn't care less what the colours are in reality.

All the same, I'm sure that if one is brave then recovery comes from within, through complete acceptance of suffering and death, and through the surrender of one's will and love of self. But that's no good to me, I like to paint, to see people and things and everything that makes our life—artificial, if you like. Yes, real life would be something else, but I don't think I belong to that category of souls who are ready to live, and also ready to suffer, at any moment.

And then there are painters who never do anything that is no good, who cannot do anything bad, just as there are ordinary people who can do nothing but good.

Love is the best and the noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire.