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.

If I were to think of and dwell on disastrous possibilities, I could do nothing. I throw myself headlong into my work, and come up again with my studies; if the storm within gets too...

Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.

I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things...

La tristesse durera toujours.[The sadness will last forever.]

It’s better to have a gay life of it than to commit suicide.

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite,...

The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.

One wants to be an honest man; one is so, one works hard; but still one cannot make both ends meet; on must give up the work, there is no chance of carrying it out...

I hope to depart in no other way than looking back with love and wistfulness and thinking, oh paintings that I would have made..

I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at...

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,...

However, the painter of the future will be a colorist, such as has never yet existed. Manet was working towards it, but as you know the Impressionists have already got a stronger color than Manet....

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

I have played hell somewhat with the truthfulness of the colors

But after all I find in my work an echo of what struck me. I see that nature has told me something, has spoken to me, and that I have put it down in shorthand....

It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that, whenever we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation—of loneliness, poverty, and misery, the end and extreme of things—the thought of God comes into...

So what do you want? Does what happens inside show on the outside? There is such a great fire in one’s soul, and yet nobody ever comes to warm themselves there, and passersby see nothing...

I wish they would only take me as I am.

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

Conscience is a man’s compass.

How rich art is; if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone.

In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.

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.

Red Vineyard at Arles.

It is good to 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 well done.

A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke

What a splendid thing watercolor is to express atmosphere and distance, so that the figure is surrounded by air and can breathe in it

Winning isn’t everything…it’s the only thing.

I’m able to get by very well in life, and also with my work, without beloved God. But I, a suffering human being, can not survive without there being something greater than myself, which for...

…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?

I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.

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 . . . .

A weaver who has to direct and to interweave a great many little threads has no time to philosophize about it, rather, he is so absorbed in his work that he doesn’t think, he acts:...

When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must...

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people

There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

Both she and I have grief enough and trouble enough, but as for regrets – neither of us have any.

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 have drawn into myself so much that I literally do not see any other people anymore– excepting the peasants with whom I have direct contact, since I paint them.

When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we...

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me want to dream.

I often think of you all, one cannot do what one wants in life. The more you feel attached to a spot, the more ruthlessly you are compelled to leave it, but the memories remain,...

I consciously choose the dog’s path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter…

It may be true that there is no God here, but there must be one not far off, and at such a moment one feels His presence; which comes to the same as saying (and...

I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.