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The Wheat Field Has ...poetry; It Is Like A Memory Of Something One Has Once Seen. We Can Only Make Our Pictures Speak.
-Vincent Van Gogh
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The Wheat Field Has

Vincent Van Gogh
...
The Wheat Field Has ...poetry; It Is Like A Memory Of Something One Has Once Seen. We Can Only Make Our Pictures Speak.

Understanding the Quote: "the wheat field has ...poetry; it is like a memory of something..."

This quote by Vincent Van Gogh reflects deeply on the theme of memories. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Memories, Wheat Fields, Speak, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Vincent Van Gogh interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is celebrated for insightful thoughts on memories and wheat fields. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Memories
Wheat Fields
Speak
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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.
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Rembrandt Is So Deeply Mysterious That He Says Things For Which There Are No Words In Any Language.
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To Express Hope By Some Star, The Eagerness Of A Soul By A Sunset Radiance. Certainly There Is Nothing In That Of Stereoscopic Realism, But Is It Not Something That Actually Exists?
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It May Be True That There Is No God Here, But There Must Be One Not Far Off, And At Such A Moment One Feels His Presence; Which Comes To The Same As Saying (and I Readily Give This Sincere Profession Of Faith): I Believe In God, And That It Is His Wi
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Oh! I Must Somehow Manage To Do A Figure In A Few Strokes.
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The Cypresses Are Always Occupying My Thoughts.
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Still, There Is A Calm, Pure Harmony, And Music Inside Of Me.
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Nature Always Begins By Resisting The Artist, But He Who Really Takes It Seriously Does Not Allow That Resistance To Put Him Off His Stride; On The Contrary, It Is That Much More Of A Stimulus To Fight For Victory.
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What Am I In Most People's Eyes? A Nonentity Or An Eccentric And Disagreeable Man... I Should Want My Work To Show What Is In The Heart Of Such An Eccentric, Of Such A Nobody.
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Art Is Something Greater And Higher Than Our Own Skill Or Knowledge Or Learning. That Art Is Something Which, Though Produced By Human Hands, Is Not Wrought By Hands Alone, But Wells Up From A Deeper Source, From A Man's Soul.
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Well, I Am Ploughing On My Canvases As They Do On Their Fields (the Peasants). It Goes Badly Enough In Our Profession - In Fact That Has Always Been So, But At The Moment It Is Very Bad.
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If One Hasn't A Horse, One Is One's Own Horse.
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I Try More And More To Be Myself, Caring Relatively Little Whether People Approve Or Disapprove.
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If The Storm Within Gets Too Loud, I Take A Glass Too Much To Stun Myself.
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Seeing That I Am So Busily Occupied With Myself Just Now, I Want To Try To Paint My Self-portrait In Writing.
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The More You Love, The More You Suffer.
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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.
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I Am Always Doing What I Can't Do Yet In Order To Learn How To Do It.
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I Am A Fanatic! I Feel A Power Within Me...a Fire That I May Not Quench, But Must Keep Ablaze.
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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.
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We Are Surrounded By Poetry On All Sides.
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You Can Feel The Stars And The Infinity Of The Sky Since Life, In Spite Of Everything, Is Like A Dream.
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I Am Still Far From Being What I Want To Be, But With God's Help I Shall Succeed.
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To Suffer Without Complaint Is The Only Lesson We Have To Learn In This Life
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It Was Richepin Who Said Somewhere, 'the Love Of Art Means Loss Of Real Love'... True, But On The Other Hand, Real Love Makes You Disgusted With Art.
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If Boyhood And Youth Are But Vanity, Must It Not Be Our Ambition To Become Men?
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I Am Unable To Describe Exactly What Is The Matter With Me; Now And Then There Are Horrible Fits Of Anxiety, Apparently Without Cause, Or Otherwise A Feeling Of Emptiness And Fatigue In The Head.
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I Must Continue To Follow The Path I Take Now. If I Do Nothing, If I Study Nothing, 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. But What Is Your Final Goal, You May Ask. That Goal Will Become Clearer, Will Emerge Slowly But Surely, Much As The Rough Draught Turns Into A Sketch, And The Sketch Into A 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.
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There Is No Such Thing As An Ugly Woman.
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What Has Changed Is That My Life Then Was Less Difficult And My Future Seemingly Less Gloomy, But As Far As My Inner Self, My Way Of Looking At Things And Of Thinking Is Concerned, That Has Not Changed. But If There Has Indeed Been A Change, Then It Is That I Think, Believe And Love More Seriously Now What I Thought, Believed And Loved Even Then.
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Normality Is A Paved Road: It’s Comfortable To Walk, But No Flowers Grow On It.
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Since Visiting The Abatoirs Of S. France I Have Stopped Eating Meat.
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We Take Death To Reach A Star
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The More I Become Decomposed, The More Sick And Fragile I Am, The More I Become An Artist.
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To Exaggerate The Fairness Of Hair, I Come Even To Orange Tones, Chromes And Pale Yellow ... I Make A Plain Background Of The Richest, Intensest Blue That I Can Contrive, And By This Simple Combination Of The Bright Head Against The Rich Blue Background, I Get A Mysterious Effect, Like A Star In The Depths Of An Azure Sky.
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Christ Alone, Of All The Philosophers, Magicians, Etc., Has Affirmed Eternal Life As The Most Important Certainty, The Infinity Of Time, The Futility Of Death, The Necessity And Purpose Of Serenity And Devotion. He Lived Serenely, As An Artist Greater Than All Other Artists, Scorning Marble And Clay And Paint, Working In The Living Flesh. In Other Words, This Peerless Artist, Scarcely Conceivable With The Blunt Instrument Of Our Modern, Nervous And Obtuse Brains, Made Neither Statues Nor Paintings Nor Books. He Maintained In No Uncertain Terms That He Made ... Living Men, Immortals.
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It Must Be A Good Thing To Die Conscious Of Having Performed Some Real Good, And To Know That By This Work One Will Live, At Least In The Memory Of Some, And Will Have Left A Good Example To Those That Come After. A Work That Is Good-it May Not Be Eternal, But The Thought Expressed In It Is, And The Work Itself Will Certainly Remain In Existence For A Long, Long Time; And If Afterwards Others Arise, They Can Do No Better Than Follow In The Footsteps Of Such Predecessors And Do Their Work In The Same Way.
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It Interests Me Tremendously To Make Copies... I Started It By Chance And I Find It Teaches Me Things.
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There Are Colors Which Cause Each Other To Shine Brilliantly, Which Form A Couple Which Complete Each Other Like Man And Woman.
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One Must Never Let The Fire Go Out In One's Soul, But Keep It Burning.
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If You Work Diligently... Without Saying To Yourself Beforehand, 'i Want To Make This Or That,' If You Work As Though You Were Making A Pair Of Shoes, Without Artistic Preoccupation, You Will Not Always Find You Do Well. But The Days You Least Expect It, You Will Find A Subject Which Holds Its Own With The Work Of Those Who Have Gone Before.
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Great Things Are Not Something Accidental, But Must Certainly Be Willed.
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For The Great Doesn't Happen Through Impulse Alone, And Is A Succession Of Little Things That Are Brought Together.
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Well, I Dare Not Allow Myself Any Illusions, And I Am Afraid It May Never Happen That Father And Mother Will Really Appreciate My Art. It Is Not Their Fault; We Do Not See The Same Things With The Same Eyes, Or Have The Same Thoughts Raised In Us By Them. They Will Never Be Able To Understand What Painting Is.
Mother
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Father
How Lovely Yellow Is! It Stands For The Sun.
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Though I Am Often In The Depths Of Misery, There Is Still Calmness, Pure Harmony And Music Inside Me.
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Harmony
My Aim In Life Is To Make Pictures And Drawings, As Many And As Well As I Can; Then, At The End Of My Life... Looking Back With Love And Tender Regret, And Thinking, 'oh, The Pictures I Might Have Made!'
Regret
Thinking
Drawing
I Want To Paint Men And Women With That Something Of The External Which The Halo Used To Symbolize, And Which We Now Seek To Give By The Actual Radiance And Vibrancy Of Our Colorings.
Men
Giving
Halos
For Instead Of Trying To Reproduce Exactly What I See Before Me, I Make More Arbitrary Use Of Colour To Express Myself More Forcefully.
Color
Trying
Arbitrary
Perhaps Someday Everyone Will Have Neurosis.
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Someday
...to Look At The Stars Always Makes Me Dream, As Simply As I Dream Over The Black Dots Of A Map Representing Towns And Villages. Why, I Ask Myself, Should The Shining Dots Of The Sky Not Be As Accessible As The Black Dots On The Map Of France?
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But I Always Think That The Best Way To Know God Is To Love Many Things.
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The Sunflower Is Mine, In A Way.
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Way
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Yellow Is Capable Of Charming God.
Color
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My Great Longing Is To Make Those Very Incorrectnesses, Those Deviations, Remodellings, Changes In Reality, So That They May Become, Yes, Lies If You Like - But Truer Than The Literal Truth.
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Reality
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I Want To Paint What I Feel, And Feel What I Paint.
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There Are So Many People, Especially Among Our Comrades, Who Imagine That Words Are Nothing - On The Contrary, Isn't It True That Saying A Thing Well Is As Interesting And As Difficult As Painting It?
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Painting
Bookstores Always Remind Me That There Are Good Things In This World.
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Bookstores
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There Is No Blue Without Yellow And Without Orange, And If You Put In Blue, Then You Must Put In Yellow, And Orange Too, Mustn't You? Oh Well, You Will Tell Me That What I Write To You Are Only Banalities.
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I Often Think Of You All, One Cannot Do What One Wants In Life. The More You Feel Attached To A Spot, The More Ruthlessly You Are Compelled To Leave It, But The Memories Remain, And One Remembers - As In A Looking Glass, Darkly - One's Absent Friends.
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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?
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I See Drawings And Pictures In The Poorest Huts, In The Dirtiest Corner. And My Mind Is Drawn Toward These Things By An Irresistible Force.
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The Great Artist Is The Simplifier.
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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.
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No Blue Without Yellow And Without Orange, And If You Do Blue, Then Do Yellow And Orange As Well, Surely.
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Orange
It Is The Painting That Makes Me So Happy These Days.
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Sometimes Art Seems To Be Something Very Sublime, And, As You Say, Something Sacred.
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Sublime
Sacred
It Is The Language Of Nature To Which One Has To Listen.
Listening
Language
If You Hear A Voice Within You Say 'you Cannot Paint,' Then By All Means Paint, And That Voice Will Be Silenced.
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The Painter Of The Future Will Be A Colorist Unlike Anything Yet.
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I Want To Get To The Point Where People Say Of My Work, That Man Feels Deeply.
Men
People
Want
I Wish They Would Take Me As I Am.
Wish
Take Me As I Am
Take Me
We Are Having Wind And Rain Here, And I Am Very Glad Not To Be Alone. I Work From Memory On Bad Days, And That Would Not Do If I Were Alone.
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We Have Very Beautiful Bad Weather Here At Present - Rain, Wind, Thunder - But With Splendid Effects; That's Why I Like It.
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At One Time, The Earth Was Supposed To Be Flat. Well, So It Is, Even Today, From Paris To Asnieres. But That Fact Doesn't Prevent Science From Proving That The Earth As A Whole Is Spherical. No One Nowadays Denies It. Well...we Are Still At The Stage Of Believing That Life Itself Is Flat, The Distance From Birth To Death. Yet The Probability Is That Life, Too, Is Spherical And Much More Extensive And Capacious Than The Hemisphere We Know.
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In An Artist's Life, Death Is Perhaps Not The Most Difficult Thing.
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To Believe In God For Me Is To Feel That There Is A God, Not A Dead One, Or A Stuffed One, Who With Irresistible Force Urges Us Towards More Loving.
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Force
If One Has Such An Encounter It Is To Be Expected It Will Bring Him Into Conflict, Especially Conflict With Himself, Because One Sometimes Literally Does Not Know What To Do Or What Not To Do. But Is This Struggle And Even The Mistakes One May Make, Not Better, And Do They Not Develop Us More Than If We Keep Systematically Away From Emotions?
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Emotional
I Am Not An Adventurer By Choice But By Fate.
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It Is A Sad And Very Melancholy Scene, Which Must Strike Everyone Who Knows And Feels That We Also Have To Pass One Day Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, And “que La Fin De La Vie Humaine, Ce Sont Des Larmes Ou Des Cheveux Blancs.” What Lies Beyond This Is A Great Mystery That Only God Knows, But He Has Revealed Absolutely Through His Word That There Is A Resurrection Of The Dead.
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One Day
Purity Of Soul And Impurity Of Body Can Go Together.
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Body
The Only Time I Feel Alive Is When I'm Painting.
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Painting Demands An Intelligent Model.
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I Myself Believe That There Is In Every Painter's Life A Period Of Making Absurdities. In My Case I Think That Period Is Already Long Past.
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No, No Thought To The Winnings. One Loves Because One Loves.
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...and Then, I Have Nature And Art And Poetry, And If That Is Not Enough, What Is Enough?
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But What's Your Ultimate Goal, You'll Say. That Goal Will Become Clearer, Will Take Shape Slowly And Surely, As The Croquis Becomes A Sketch And The Sketch A Painting, As One Works More Seriously, As One Digs Deeper Into The Originally Vague Idea, The First Fugitive, Passing Thought, Unless It Becomes Firm.
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For Loneliness, Worries, Difficulties, The Unsatisfied Need For Kindness And Sympathy - That Is What Is Hard To Bear.
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To Save A Life Is A Real And Beautiful Thing. To Make A Home For The Homeless, Yes, It Is A Thing That Must Be Good; Whatever The World May Say, It Cannot Be Wrong.
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Real
Home
To Stick To The Present And Not Let It Pass Without Drawing Some Profit From It, That's What I Think Duty Is. ...let Us Perservere As Far As We Can Rather Today Than Tomorrow.
Thinking
Drawing
Sticks
As Practice Makes Perfect, I Cannot But Make Progress; Each Drawing One Makes, Each Study One Paints, Is A Step Forward.
Art
Practice
Drawing
You Have First To Experience What You Want To Express.
Motivational
Want
Firsts
A Weaver Who Has To Direct And To Interweave A Great Many Little Threads Has No Time To Philosophize About It, But Rather He Is So Absorbed In His Work That He Doesn't Think But Acts, And He Feels How Things Must Go More Than He Can Explain It.
Thinking
Littles
Great Men
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.
Wall
Greatness
Steel
We Spent Our Whole Lives In Unconsous Excercise Of The Art Of Expressing Our Thoughts With The Help Of Words
Art
Helping
Whole Life
Even The Knowledge Of My Own Fallibility Cannot Keep Me From Making Mistakes. Only When I Fall Do I Get Up Again.
Mistake
Fall
Knowledge
It Is A Pity That, As One Gradually Gains Experience, One Loses One's Youth.
Gains
Youth
Pity
I'm Now Painting With All The Elan Of A Marseillais Eating Soup, Which Won't Surprise You When I Tell You I'm Painting Large Sunflowers. The Idea? To Decorate The Studio, Now There's Hope Of Gauguin Living Here. I Aim At A Dozen Panels Of Sunflowers In The Room I've Set Aside For Gauguin.
Ideas
Sunflower
Dozen
What Color Is In A Picture, Enthusiasm Is In Life.
Color
Enthusiasm
Often Whole Days Pass Without My Speaking To Anyone.
Being Alone
Creativity
Whole
The Sight Of Stars Makes Me Dream.
Dream
Stars
Sight
I Sometimes Think There Is Nothing So Delightful As Drawing.
Thinking
Drawing
Sketching
Someday Death Will Take Us To Another Star.
Stars
Someday
We Must Not Judge God From This World. It's Just A Study That Didn't Come Off. It's Only A Master Who Could Make Such A Blunder.
Judging
World
Study
In Trees, I See Expression And Soul
Expression
Tree
Soul
It's As Interesting And As Difficult To Say A Thing Well As To Paint It. There Is The Art Of Lines And Colours, But The Art Of Words Exists Too, And Will Never Be Less Important.
Art
Interesting
Important
Everywhere We Look, Complex Magic Of Nature Blazes Before Our Eyes.
Eye
Magic
Looks
Drawing Is The Root Of Everything, And The Time Spent On That Is Actually All Profit.
Roots
Drawing
Profit
The Lamps Are Burning And The Starry Sky Is Over It All.
Art
Sky
Lamps
I Always Dream A Painting Like That, With A Group Of Lively Figures Of The Pals.
Dream
Groups
Pals
... Life Is Too Short To Do The Whole.
Time
Life Is Too Short
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I Am Risking My Life For My Work, And Half My Reason Has Gone.
Gone
Half
Reason
In Order To Work And To Become An Artist One Needs Love. At Least, One Who Wants Sentiment In His Work Must In The First Place Feel It Himself, And Live With His Heart
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Artist
Order
It Is Looking At Things For A Long Time That Ripens You And Gives You A Deeper Meaning.
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Giving
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I Don't Know Anything With Certainty, But Seeing The Stars Makes Me Dream.
Inspirational
Dream
Art
One Begins By Plaguing Oneself To No Purpose In Order To Be True To Nature, And One Concludes By Working Quietly From One's Own Palette Alone, And Then Nature Is The Result.
Order
Purpose
Results
How Rich Art Is, If One Can Only Remember What One Has Seen, One Is Never Empty Of Thoughts Or Truly Lonely, Never Alone.
Lonely
Art
Remember
Christ Is More Of An Artist Than The Artists; He Works In The Living Spirit And The Living Flesh, He Makes Men Instead Of Statues.
Artist
Men
Flesh
Do Not Quench Your Inspiration And Your Imagination; Do Not Become The Slave Of Your Model.
Inspiration
Science
Artist
One Must Work And Dare If One Really Wants To Live.
Life
Insightful
Want
What A Simple Thing Death Is, Just As Simple As The Falling Of An Autumn Leaf.
Death
Fall
Autumn
The Large Majority Of People Are Asleep And Do Not Wish To Wake Up.
People
Wish
Majority
Color In A Picture Is Like Enthusiasm In Life.
Photography
Enthusiasm For Life
Color
Poetry Surrounds Us Everywhere, But Putting It On Paper Is, Alas, Not So Easy As Looking At It.
Artist
Paper
Easy
It Is Difficult To Know Oneself, But It Isn't Easy To Paint Oneself Either.
Easy
Paint
Difficult
Don't Lose Heart If It's Very Difficult At Times, Everything Will Come Out All Right And Nobody Can In The Beginning Do As He Wishes.
Heart
Wish
Difficult
The Fishermen Know That The Sea Is Dangerous And The Storm Terrible, But They Have Never Found These Dangers Sufficient Reason For Remaining Ashore.
Life
Leadership
Determination
I've Never Felt A Desire (and I Don't Believe I Ever Shall) To Bring The Public To My Work... A Certain Popularity Seems To Me The Least Desirable Of Things.
Believe
Desire
Popularity
One Of The Hardest Things To Do Is To Paint Darkness Which Nonetheless Has Light In It.
Light
Darkness
Painting
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.
Love
Loneliness
Artist
I Have A Firm Faith In Art, A Firm Confidence In Its Being A Powerful Stream Which Carries A Man To A Harbor, Though He Himself Must Do His Bit Too.
Art
Powerful
Men
Here Everything Is So Wholly What I Consider Beautiful. In Other Words, There Is Peace Here.
Beautiful
How Right It Is To Love Flowers And The Greenery Of Pines And Ivy And Hawthorn Hedges; They Have Been With Us From The Very Beginning.
Flower
Ivy
Greenery
To The One Party, Woman Is Always Heresy And Diabolical. To Me, The Opposite.
Party
Opposites
Impressive
I've Just Kept On Ceaselessly Painting In Order To Learn Painting.
Order
Painting
When I Have A Terrible Need Of - Shall I Say The Word - Religion. Then I Go Out And Paint The Stars.
Nature
Stars
Ignorance
Love Is Something Eternal.
Love Is
Eternal
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.
God
Thinking
Knowing
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.
Art
Taken
Mean
When We Are Working At A Difficult Task And Strive After A Good Thing, We Are Fighting A Righteous Battle, The Direct Reward Of Which Is That We Are Kept From Much Evil. As We Advance In Life It Becomes More And More Difficult, But In Fighting The Difficulties The Inmost Strength Of The Heart Is Developed.
Heart
Fighting
Order
When I Have A Model Who Is Quiet And Steady And With Whom I Am Acquainted, Then I Draw Repeatedly 'til There Is One Drawing That Is Different From The Rest, Which Does Not Look Like An Ordinary Study, But More Typical And With More Feeling.
Drawing
Feelings
Typical
But I Must Work On In Full Calmness And Serenity... The World Concerns Me Only In So Far As I Feel A Certain Debt And Duty Towards It, Because I Have Walked On The Earth For Thirty Years, And Out Of Gratitude Want To Leave Some Souvenir In The Shape Of Drawings Or Pictures, Not Made To Please A Certain Tendency In Art, But To Express A Sincere Human Feeling. So This Work Is The Aim-and Through Concentration Upon That One Idea, Everything One Does Is Simplified. Now The Work Goes Slowly-a Reason The More To Lose No Time.
Gratitude
Art
Years
There Was A Sentence In Your Letter That Struck Me, “i Wish I Were Far Away From Everything, I Am The Cause Of All, And Bring Only Sorrow To Everybody, I Alone Have Brought All This Misery On Myself And Others.” These Words Struck Me Because That Same Feeling, Just The Same, Not More Nor Less, Is Also On My Conscience.
Feelings
Sorrow
Wish
I Am No Friend Of Present-day Christianity, Though Its Founder Was Sublime.
Sublime
No Friends
Christianity
An Artist Need Not Be A Minister Or A Collector In Church, But He Must Have A Warm Heart For People, And I Find It A Noble Thing That, For Example, No Winter Passed Without The Graphic Doing Something To Keep Alive Sympathy For The Poor.
Heart
Winter
Artist
What Would Life Be If We Had No Courage To Attempt Anything?
Being Strong
Confidence
Courage
That I Was Not Suited To Commerce Or Academic Study In No Way Proves That I Should Also Be Unfit To Be A Painter.
Way
Study
Academic
There Is Nothing More Beautiful Than Nature Early In The Morning.
Beautiful
Morning
There Is A Sun, A Light That For Want Of Another Word I Can Only Call Yellow, Pale Sulphur Yellow, Pale Golden Citron. How Lovely Yellow Is!
Art
Yellow
Light
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
Heart
Men
Sea
I Work Even In The Middle Of The Day, In The Full Sunshine, And I Enjoy It Like A Cicada.
Work
Sunshine
Cicadas
Life Is Not Long For Anybody, And The Problem Is Only To Make Something Of It.
Long
Problem
Life Is
In My View, I Am Often Immensely Rich, Not In Money, But (although Just Now Perhaps Not All The Time) Rich Because I Have Found My Metier, Something I Can Devote Myself To Heart And Soul And That Gives Inspiration And Meaning To My Life.
Inspiration
Heart
Views
I Believe I Do Much Better For The Time Being By First Copying Some Good Things Than By Working Without That Foundation
Believe
Foundation
Copying
Whatever Plan One Makes, There Is A Hidden Difficulty Somewhere.
Work
Difficulty
Plans
There Is Something Intimate About Painting I Cannot Explain To You ? But It Is So Delightful Just For Expressing One's Feelings.
Feelings
Painting
Intimacy
I Am Astonished At The High Prices Paid For Works By Painters Who Are Dead, Prices None Of Them Could Expect When They Were Alive. It Is A Kind Of Tulip Trade, In Which Living Painters Suffer But Do Not Profit.
Suffering
Alive
Kind
I Devour Nature Ceaselessly. I Exaggerate, Sometimes I Make Changes In The Subject; But Still I Don't Invent The Whole Picture. On The Contrary, I Find It Already There. It's A Question Of Picking Out What One Wants From Nature.
Nature
Want
Sometimes
I Always Think Photographs Abominable, And I Don't Like To Have Them Around, Particularly Not Those Of Persons I Know And Love. Those Photographic Portraits Wither Much Sooner Than We Ourselves Do, Whereas The Painted Portrait Is A Thing Which Is Felt, Done With Love.
Character
Thinking
Two
I Take Great Care Of Myself By Carefully Shutting Myself Away.
Care
There Certainly Is An Affinity Between A Person And His Work, But It Is Not Easy To Define What This Affinity Is, And On That Question Many Judge Quite Wrongly.
Judging
Easy
Affinity
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.
Thinking
People
Wheat
If We Study Japanese Art, We See A Man Who Is Undoubtedly Wise, Philosophic And Intelligent, Who Spends His Time Doing What? He Studies A Single Blade Of Grass.
Wise
Art
Intelligent
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