Top 34 Vincent Van Gogh Quotes about Life, Love, and Art

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art.

Here’s our collection of beautiful, inspirational, and memorable Vincent Van Gogh quotes.

Famous Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

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

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

I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

Conscience is a man’s compass.

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

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

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

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

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

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

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

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

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

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

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 better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.

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 always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.

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.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic that to love others.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

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.