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.
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
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.
I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
What I am in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, the...
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.
La tristesse durera toujours.]
I dream my painting and I paint my dream.
One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.
When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.
But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.
In the fullness of artistic life there is, and remains, and will always come back at times, that homesick longing for the truly ideal life that can never come true.
I confess I do not know why, but looking at the stars always makes me dream.
The best way to know God is to love many things.
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
Art is to console those who are broken by life.