Quotes

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

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

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 loud, I take a glass too much to stun myself.

You can't be at the pole and the equator at the same time. You must choose your own line, as I hope to do, and it will probably be color.

I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible - and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger makes haste in what he does.

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone.

I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate efforts to force the work I am doing now upon the public would be pretty useless.

My opinion is that the best thing would be to work on till art lovers feel drawn toward it of their own accord, instead of having to praise or to explain it.

I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.

I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'

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

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.

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

Conscience is a man's compass.

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

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

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

Happiness... it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.

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

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

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.

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

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.

Love is something eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence.

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.

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.

The best way to know God is to love many things.

The Mediterranean has the color of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don't always know if it is green or violet, you can't even say it's blue, because the next moment the changing reflection has taken on a tint of rose or gray.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

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

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

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