Popular Vincent van Gogh Quotes

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch artist. He was best known as a major post-impressionist painter. His work had a far-reaching influence on the art of 20^th century. Some of the famous quotes by Vincent van Gogh are listed here.

1. “I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.” - Vincent van Gogh
2. “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.” - Vincent van Gogh
3. “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” - Vincent van Gogh
4. “If you hear a voice within you saying, ”You are not a painter,” then by all means paint… and that voice will be silenced.” - Vincent van Gogh
5. “But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.” - Vincent van Gogh
6. “How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?” - Vincent van Gogh
7. “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” - Vincent van Gogh
8. “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.” - Vincent van Gogh
9. “Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence” - Vincent van Gogh
10. “Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.” - Vincent van Gogh
11. “The way to know life is to love many things.” - Vincent van Gogh
12. “Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.” - Vincent van Gogh
13. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” - Vincent van Gogh
14. “I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people” - Vincent van Gogh
15. “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent van Gogh
16. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” - Vincent van Gogh
17. “I wish they would only take me as I am.” - Vincent van Gogh
18. “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 . . . .” - Vincent van Gogh
19. “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore” - Vincent van Gogh
20. “You write in your letter something which I sometimes feel also: Sometimes I do not know how I shall pull through.” - Vincent van Gogh
21. “Conscience is a man’s compass” - Vincent van Gogh
22. “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” - Vincent van Gogh
23. “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” - Vincent van Gogh
24. “Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.” - Vincent van Gogh
25. “I have … a terrible need … shall I say the word? … of religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars.” - Vincent van Gogh
26. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” - Vincent van Gogh
27. “One must work and dare if one really wants to live.” - Vincent van Gogh
28. “There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” - Vincent van Gogh
29. “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” - Vincent van Gogh
30. “Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.” - Vincent van Gogh
31. “It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent.” - Vincent van Gogh
32. “As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.” - Vincent van Gogh
33. “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.” - Vincent van Gogh
34. “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.” - Vincent van Gogh
35. “The more I think about it,the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others” - Vincent van Gogh
36. “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.” - Vincent van Gogh
37. “I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.” - Vincent van Gogh
38. Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.” - “Vincent van Gogh
39. “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.” - Vincent van Gogh
40. “If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.” - Vincent van Gogh
41. “Occasionally, in times of worry, I’ve longed to be stylish, but on second thought I say no—just let me be myself—and express rough, yet true things with rough workmanship.” - Vincent van Gogh
42. “I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.” - Vincent van Gogh
43. “One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.” - Vincent van Gogh
44. “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” - Vincent van Gogh
45. “Love is eternal - the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and was a good lamp, but now it is shed” - Vincent van Gogh
46. “Ideas for work are coming to me in abundance…I’m going like a painting-locomotive.” - Vincent van Gogh
47. “As you can see, I am immersing myself in color—I’ve held back from that until now; and I don’t regret it.” - Vincent van Gogh
48. “I consciously choose the dog’s path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter…” - Vincent van Gogh
49. “Drawing is the root of everything, and the time spent on that is actually all profit.” - Vincent van Gogh
50. “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.” - Vincent van Gogh
51. “I’m drawing a great deal and think it’s getting better.” - Vincent van Gogh
52. “One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well, just as one can say comforting things in music.” - Vincent van Gogh
53. “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” - Vincent van Gogh
54. “Sometimes I long so much to do landscape, just as one would go for a long walk to refresh oneself, and in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul.” - Vincent van Gogh

We hope that you must have enjoyed reading the above quotes by Vincent van Gogh. If you have more of his quotes do feel free to share the same in the comments section.