Vincent Van Gogh has always been a personal hero of mine. There’s just something about his incredible art and how he poured his heart into everything he did. He didn’t just create art—he lived and breathed it, and that’s what draws me to him.
What moves me most is how Van Gogh always found beauty in the simplest things, even when life was tough. That mindset is something I try to carry with me every day—it’s a reminder that there’s always something worth appreciating, no matter how hard things get.
In this collection, I’m sharing some of Van Gogh’s quotes that have stuck with me over the years. Whether you’re a fan like me or just curious about his take on life, I’m sure these quotes will leave an impression on you, too.
Table of Contents
Best Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
- “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
- “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
- “Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”
- “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
- “One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”
- “The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
- “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
- “I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
- “I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
- “Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.”
- “I wish they would only take me as I am.”
Inspirational Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
- “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
- “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.”
- “Those who want to see will see, and those who want to hear will hear.”
- “The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
- “Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.”
- “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
- “I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.”
- “I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.”
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Art
- “I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.’”
- “I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.”
- “In spite of everything, I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.”
- “Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
- “Art is to console those who are broken by life.”
- “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.”
- “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
- “Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.”
- “Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
- “To understand blue you must first understand yellow and orange”
- “The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”
- “…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
- “Rather than reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully.”
- “Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.”
- “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.”
- “An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.”
- “Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.”
- “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 Quotes About Life
- “As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.”
- “Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.”
- “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
- “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, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.”
- “The way to know life is to love many things.”
- “What preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way?”
- “To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life.”
- “Someday death will take us to another star.”
- “I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.”
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Love
- “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.”
- “What is done in love is done well.”
- “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.”
- “Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence.”
- “Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.”
- “You have first to experience what you want to express.”
- “But 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, that is what I keep telling myself.”
- “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.”
- “She and I are two unhappy ones who keep together and carry our burdens together, and in this way unhappiness is changed to joy, and the unbearable becomes bearable.”
Vincent Van Gogh Quotes About Nature
- “Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.”
- “If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
- “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of stars makes me dream.”
- “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.”
- “How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.”
- “Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.”
More Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
- “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.”
- “I long so much to make beautiful things. But beautiful things require effort — and disappointment and perseverance.”
- “The sadness will last forever.”
- “I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.”
- “Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.”
- “If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?”
- “In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.”
- “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.”
- “Bookstores always remind me that there are good things in this world”
- “To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one’s fling from time to time, smoke one’s pipe, and drink one’s coffee in peace”
- “I hope to depart in no other way than looking back with love and wistfulness and thinking, oh paintings that I would have made..”
Final Thoughts
Van Gogh’s quotes remind us to keep going, appreciate the little things, and stay passionate about what matters. That’s what he did, and it’s what makes his legacy so meaningful.
If these quotes resonate with you, take a little time to explore his thoughts more. Van Gogh’s words are full of wisdom that can touch us all.
