59 Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Painting One’s Dreams
The view from his room’s window at the mental asylum inspired him to create his magnum opus, “The Starry Night”, one of the most recognized and celebrated masterpieces in the world of art. His own words have urged us to collect the most influential Vincent Van Gogh quotes.
Born in 1853 in Zundert, in the Netherlands, Vincent Van Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter and one of the most important artists in the world. Almost unknown during his lifetime, his artistic style of emphatic contouring with bold colours and fluid brushstrokes revolutionized the Expressionism movement and modern art. Today, his paintings are among the most expensive, auctioned at record-breaking prices.
Van Gogh started his career as an apprentice to art dealers, something that triggered his interest in painting. His dramatic life was marked by unrequited love and a constant struggle with mental illness and poverty overshadowed his. He survived only thanks to his brother Theo, who supported him both financially and psychologically until the end.
While in France, he shared for a short period an apartment with French artist Paul Gauguin, however, the two got into an argument that agitated Van Gogh so much that he picked a razor and mutilated his own left ear. Soon after, realizing that he needed specialist treatment, he was self-admitted to an asylum and a year later he committed suicide. He died on 29 July, 1890. To commemorate his legacy and life’s work The Van Gogh Museum was founded in Amsterdam, housing the world’s largest collection of his artworks.
Here we have curated for you the most inspiring quotes of this great artist, to share with loved ones in order to motivate them but also for self-reflection, since they provide a unique window to the artist’s mind and a new perspective to the beauty of life!
Table of Contents
- Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About His Art and the Beauty of Nature
- Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Love and Friendship
- Inspirational Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh About Courage and Being Who You Really Are
- Sad Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Loneliness
- Quotes from the Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
- Motivational Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh
- Vincent Van Gogh Quotes On Images
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About His Art and the Beauty of Nature
- I dream my painting and I paint my dream. Vincent Van Gogh
- 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
- I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process. Vincent van Gogh
- I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. Vincent van Gogh
- If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Vincent Van Gogh
- Art is to console those who are broken by life. Vincent van Gogh
- The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting. Vincent van Gogh
- I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart. Vincent van Gogh
- It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning. Vincent Van Gogh
- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. Vincent Van Gogh
- Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague. Vincent Van Gogh
- The sunflower is mine, in a way. Vincent van Gogh
- How difficult it is to be simple! Vincent van Gogh
- Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. Vincent Van Gogh
- I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’. Vincent van Gogh
- To understand blue you must first understand yellow and orange. Vincent van Gogh
- I long so much to make beautiful things. But beautiful things require effort and disappointment and perseverance. Vincent van Gogh
- 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
- 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. Vincent van Gogh
- If you work with love and intelligence, you develop a kind of armour against people’s opinions, just because of the sincerity of your love for nature and art. Nature is also severe and, to put it that way, hard, but never deceives and always helps you to move forward. Vincent Van Gogh
- It is not only by one’s impulses that one achieves greatness, but also by patiently filing away the steel wall that separates what one feels from what one is capable of doing. Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Love and Friendship
- There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. Vincent Van Gogh
- I will not live without love. Vincent Van Gogh
- The more you love, the more you suffer. Vincent van Gogh
- 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. Vincent Van Gogh
- Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone. Vincent van Gogh
- 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 shedding light too, and that is its real function. And love makes one calmer about many things, and that way, one is more fit for one’s work. Vincent van Gogh
Inspirational Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh About Courage and Being Who You Really Are
- Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. Vincent van Gogh
- What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Vincent Van Gogh
- Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all. Vincent Van Gogh
- …and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough? Vincent Willem van Gogh
- I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh
- What color is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life. Vincent van Gogh
- If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning. Vincent van Gogh
- 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
- I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove. Vincent Van Gogh
- It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful. Vincent Van Gogh
- 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
- Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. Vincent van Gogh
Sad Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Loneliness
- The sadness will last forever. Vincent van Gogh
- I wish they would take me as I am. Vincent van Gogh
- A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke. Vincent Van Gogh
- Someday death will take us to another star. Vincent van Gogh
- I take great care of myself by carefully shutting myself away. Vincent van Gogh
Quotes from the Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
The letters were mostly sent to his brother Theo.
- The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too. Vincent van Gogh
- There is peace even in the storm. Vincent van Gogh
- So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me, and reminded me that there are good things in the world. Vincent van Gogh
- To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life. Vincent van Gogh
- In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically. Vincent Van Gogh
- And when I read, and really I do not read so much, only a few authors, – a few men that I discovered by accident – I do this because they look at things in a broader, milder and more affectionate way than I do, and because they know life better, so that I can learn from them. Vincent Van Gogh
- Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire. Vincent van Gogh
- We are surrounded by poetry on all sides… Vincent Van Gogh
- How rich art is, if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never empty of thoughts or truly lonely, never alone. Vincent van Gogh
- And the memories of all we have loved stay and come back to us in the evening of our life. They are not dead but sleep, and it is well to gather a treasure of them. Vincent van Gogh
Motivational Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh
- The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right. Vincent van Gogh
- Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough. Vincent van Gogh
- One must work and dare if one really wants to live. Vincent Van Gogh
- Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And let us not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil. Vincent Van Gogh
- If I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it – keep going, keep going come what may. Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes On Images
You May Also Like:
Dreams of Patterns, Patterns of Dreams | 82 Pablo Picasso Quotes
Seeds of Love | 100+ Sunflower Quotes
Means of Expression, Key to Solutions | 199 Art Quotes