I am no friend of present-day Christianity, though its Founder was sublime.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884

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.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jul. 1880

A good picture should be equivalent to a good deed.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Albert Aurier, Feb. 10, 1890

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, Power Quotes to Engergize Your Life

People are often unable to do anything, imprisoned as they are in I don't know what kind of terrible, terrible, oh such terrible cage.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jul. 1880

If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm -- but that's a lie.... That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884

The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884

Life itself, too, is forever turning an infinitely vacant, dispiriting blank side towards man on which nothing appears, any more than it does on a blank canvas. But no matter how vacant and vain, how dead life may appear to be, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, who knows something, will not be put off so easily.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884

Keep going, keep going come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the draft turns into the sketch and the sketch into the painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jul. 1880

I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, Incredible Quotations

One of the reasons why I have no regular job, and why I have not had a regular job for years, is quite simply that my ideas differ from those of the gentlemen who hand out the jobs to individuals who think as they do. It is not just a question of my appearance, which is what they have sanctimoniously reproached me with. It goes deeper, I do assure you.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jul. 1880

Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter, June 1880

Painters understand nature & love her & teach us to see.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jan. 1874

There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even--the French air clears up the brain and does good--a world of good.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, Vincent Van Gogh: Ever Yours: the Essential Letters

One must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Jul. 1880

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, attributed, The Ultimate Book of Quotations