Quotes About Struggle

When I see how several painters I know here are struggling with their watercolours and paintings so that they can't see a solution anymore, I sometimes think: Friend, the fault is in your drawing. I don't regret for a moment that I did not go in for watercolour and oil painting straight away. I am sure I will catch up if only I struggle on, so that my hand does not waver in drawing and perspective.

Against all expectations, the symptoms of Van Gogh's mental illness are conspicuous by their almost complete absence from his letters. Much as he chose not to paint before he had fully recovered from one of his attacks, so he refrained from writing at times of crisis. Throughout his life, admittedly, his letters bear witness to a man possessed, frequently agitated, enraged, dejected, obsessed, but never deranged, or emotionally or intellectually unstable.

What am I in the eyes of most people? A good-for-nothing, an eccentric and disagreeable man, somebody who has no position in society and never will have. Very well, even if that were true, I should want to show by my work what there is in the heart of such an eccentric man, of such a nobody.

I have a feeling of being at home when I am with Sien, a feeling that she gives me my own hearth, that our lives are interwoven. This is a heartfelt, deep feeling, serious, and not without a dark shadow of her gloomy past and mine, as if some evil threatened us, against which we should have to struggle all our lives. At the same time, I feel a great calm and brightness and cheerfulness at the thought of her, and the straight path that is lying before me.

It quite often makes me feel sad that painting's like a bad mistress one might have, who's always spending, spending and it's never enough.. [Letter 630, Arles, 23 June 1888]

Dans chaque vie où de la pluie doit tomber, quelques jours seront sombres et lugubres – c'est vrai, il ne peut en aller autrement, et pourtant je me demande si le nombre de jours sombres et lugubres peut parfois devenir trop grand ? La lutte intérieure de Van Gogh: Sa vie, son Å"uvre et sa maladie mentale - Liesbeth Heenk

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.

gerçeklikten daha gerçek olan nedir, yaÅŸam?n kendisinden daha çok yaÅŸam nerededir? Ve bizler, elimizden geldiÄŸince yaÅŸamaya çal??an bizler, neden daha yoÄŸun yaÅŸayam?yoruz?

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

What am I in the eyes of most people –a nonentity or an eccentric or an obnoxious person –someone who has no position in society and never will have, in short the lowest of the low. Well, then –even if that were all absolutely true, I should one day like to show by my work what there is in the heart of such an eccentric, of such a nobody.

Dar din tulburarea de nedescris a sufletului meu a È›âÈ™nit în mine o idee, aidoma unei lumini str?lucitoare în noapte: cine se poate resemna s? se resemneze, dar, dac? eÈ™ti în stare s? crezi, atunci crede! ?i m-am ridicat de jos, nu ca un om resemnat, ci ca un credincios È™i n-am mai avut alt gând decât: ea, nimeni alta.

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.

What I am in the eyes of most people — a nonetity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short, the lowest of the low.

În fine, nu m? pot l?sa prad? melancoliei, trebuie s? g?sesc o ieÈ™ire, c?ci datoria mea e s? lucrez. Sunt clipe când nu-mi g?sesc liniÈ™tea decât în certitudinea c? nenorocirea nu m? va cruÈ›a nici pe mine.

You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter, 'You can't do a thing'.

I have had no "guidance or teaching" from others to speak of, but taught myself; no wonder my technique, considered superficially, differs from that of others. But that's no reason for my work to remain unsaleable. I feel pretty sure that the large "Sorrow," "The Old Woman of the Geest," the "Old Man," and others, will find a purchaser someday.

If the emotions are sometimes so strong that one works without knowing one works, when sometimes the strokes come with a continuity and a coherence like words in a speech or a letter, then one must remember that it has not always been so, and that in time to come there will again be hard days, empty of inspiration. So one must strike while the iron is hot, and put the forged bars on one side.

Now, I'm going through a similar period of struggle and despondency, of patience and impatience, of hope and desolation. But I must plod on and anyway, after a while I'll understand more about making watercolours. If it were that easy, one wouldn't take any pleasure in it. And it's exactly the same with painting.

In an artist's life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.

Spero di avere un po' di fortuna con quel quadro dei mangiatori di patate.

Every man must bear his own burden.

Avevo incominciato a firmare i quadri, ma ho smesso subito, mi sembrava troppo cretino.

Atualmente estou descontente comigo e descontente com o que faço, mas entrevejo a possibilidade de fazer melhor na sequência.

Pois às vezes é diabolicamente duro ficar totalmente fora da pintura e do mundo dos pintores e não ver nada dos outros.