Quotes from Vincent Van Gogh

Did I tell you that I had sent the drawings to friend Russell? At the moment I am doing practically the same ones again for you, there will be twelve likewise. You will then see better what there is in the painted studies in the way of drawing. I have already told you that I always have to fight against the mistral, which makes it absolutely impossible to be master of your stroke. That accounts for the "haggard" look of the studies.

I am writing to Russell at the same time. I think we know, don't we, that the English, the Yankees, have this much in common with the Dutch, that their charity…is very Christian. Now, the rest of us not being very good Christians…That's what I can't put out of my head writing again like this.

If I were living near you, I should try to make you understand that it might perhaps be more practical for you to paint with me than to write, and that you might be able to express your feelings more easily that way. In any case I can do something personally about your painting, but I am not in the writing profession.

On commence par tuer, on finit par guerir," [One begins by killing, one ends by healing] is a doctor's saying. One starts with a hopeless struggle to follow nature, and everything goes wrong; one ends by calmly creating from one's palette, and nature agrees with it, and follows.

The rest certainly must seem damn bad." And the days when I bring home a study I say to myself - If it was like this every day, we might be able to get on; but the days when you come back empty-handed, and eat and sleep and spend money all the same, you don't think much of yourself, and you feel like a fool and a shirker and a good-for-nothing.

Your life would be empty indeed if you didn't regret anything.

You must not go there in too anemic or enervated a condition, if you set a value on coming out of it stronger. I do not consider it a great misfortune for you to be obliged to be a soldier, but rather as a very serious trial from which you will emerge - if you emerge at all - a very great artist.

And do come as soon as you possibly can! P.S. to Gauguin. If you are not ill, do please come at once. If you are too ill, a wire and a letter, please. P.S. to Theo. Perhaps you will think the P.S. to Gauguin too curt, but let him say whether or not he is ill, and anyhow he will recover better here. Have you received my canvases???

I am not writing to Gauguin direct, but will send the letter to you, because in any case we had better sit tight. If we say nothing more, if the reply shows that we have made such and such a proposal but that there must be some initiative on his side too, then we can see if he is keen on it. If he is not keen on it, if it's all the same to him, if he has something else in mind, let him remain independent and me too.

I shall be glad to do all I can to make a success of what we began in the café, but I think that the primary condition on which success depends is to set aside all petty jealousies, for only union is strength. Surely the common interest is worth the sacrifice of that selfishness of every man for himself.

But then I know that I am not - not their equal - but didn't the Flauberts and Balzacs make the Zolas and Maupassants? So here's to - not us, but to the generation to come.

But I cannot help thinking that the best way of knowing God is to love many things. Love this friend, this person, this thing, whatever you like, and you will be on the right road to understanding Him better, that is what I keep telling myself. But you must love with a sublime, genuine, profound sympathy, with devotion, with intelligence, and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. That will lead to God, that will lead to an unshakeable faith.

To my letter of the day before yesterday I want to add that yesterday I had a letter from Rappard, and that our quarrel is completely made up, that he has sent me a sketch of a large picture of a brickyard which he is painting.

Try to grasp the essence of what the great artists, the serious masters, say in their masterpieces, and you will again find God in them. One man has written or said it in a book, another in a painting. Just read the Bible and the Gospel, that will start you thinking, thinking about many things, thinking about everything, well then, think about many things, think about everything, that will lift your thoughts above the humdrum despite yourself. We know how to read, so let us read!

I insist on this, the plan remains just as real and solid whether Gauguin comes or not, seeing that our object doesn't change - to deliver me and one of the comrades from this cancer that is gnawing at our work, this being forced to live in these ruinous inns without any profit to ourselves. It is pure madness.

I hope when you go back to Holland you will take along some study of mine to decorate your room.

Ce que l'homme tue Dieu le ressuscite [What man kills God resuscitates].

The Yellow House has never left the artist's estate. Since 1962, it has been held by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, established by the artist's nephew, and is permanently housed in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

There is nothing more beautiful than nature in the early morning.

Ben bunlar?n hiçbirini bilmem ama ruhunda kendini yenileyebilecek kadar enerjisi olan insana sayg? göstermesini bilirim. Tanr?m yaÅŸad???m?z çaÄŸ bir tembeller, ayaklar ça??d?r diye yak?namay?z, madem cennete pek inanamad?klar? halde bu çeÅŸit bir hayat süren bu tip inanlar ya??yor dünyam?zda.1

Si realmente amas la naturaleza, encontrarás la belleza en todas partes

For the moment the solitude doesn't bother me, and later we will find someone for company, and perhaps in the end more than we want. I believe it is not necessary to say anything unpleasant to Gauguin if he does change his mind, and take it absolutely in good part.

El corazón del hombre es muy parecido al mar, tiene sus tormentas, tiene sus mareas y en sus profundidades también tiene sus perlas

All right, but think of the winter, for here you can work all year round. The reason why I love this country is that I have less to fear from the cold, which, because it stops my blood circulating properly, makes it impossible for me to think or even do anything at all.