| |  | | | | | | | | | | | I want to do drawings which touch people...In figure or landscape I should wish to express, not sentimental melancholy, but serious sorrow. | | Art | | | I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.' | | Uncategorized | | | I wish they would only take me as I am. | | Wishes | | | I'm able to get by very well in life, and also with my work, without beloved God. But I, a suffering human being, can not survive without there being something greater than myself, which for me is my whole life- the creative power...I want to paint m | | God | | | If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men? | | Uncategorized | | | 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. | | Uncategorized | | | 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. | | Uncategorized | | | 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. | | Understanding | | | If one keeps loving faithfully what is really worth loving, and does not waste one's love on insignificant and unworthy and meaningless things, one will get more light by and by and grow stronger. Sometimes it is well to go into the world and converse with people, and at times one is obliged to do so, but he who would prefer to be quietly alone with his work, and who wants but very few friends, will go safest through the world and among people. And even in the most refined circles and with the best surroundings and circumstances, one must keep something of the original character of an anchorite, for other wise one has no root in oneself; one must never let the fire go out in one's soul, but keep it burning. And whoever chooses poverty for himself and loves it possesses a great treasure, and will always clearly hear the voice of his conscience; he who hears and obeys that voice, which is the best gift of God, finds at least a friend in it, and is never alone. | | Uncategorized | | | If you hear a voice within you saying, ''You are not a painter,'' then by all means paint… and that voice will be silenced. | | Uncategorized | | | In my painting of the 'All -Night Cafe' I've tried to express the idea that the cafe is a place where one can ruin oneself, become crazy and criminal. Through the contrast of the delicate pink, blood red and dark red, of mild Louis XV and Veronese gr | | Painting | | | 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 | | Uncategorized | | | In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism and skepticism and humbug and we shall want to live more musically | | Cynicism; Living; Skepticism | | | It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that when we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation - of loneliness, of poverty and misery, the end of all things, or their extreme - then rises in our mind the thought of God. | | Uncategorized | | | It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one's youth. | | Age; Experience; Youth | | | It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent. | | Uncategorized | | | 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. | | Language; Nature; Painting; Realism | | | It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill- it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy. | | Art; Life; Madness | | | It is true that every day has its own evil, and its good too. But how difficult must life be, especially farther on when the evil of each day increases as far as worldly things go, if it is not strengthened and comforted by faith. And in Christ all worldly things may become better, and, as it were, sanctified. Theo, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel; if I did not aim at that and possess faith and hope in Christ, it would be bad for me indeed, but no I have some courage. | | Day; Faith; Life | | | 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 | | Uncategorized | | | | | | | |
