The Mind Creative
Van Gogh’s Letters
The letters written by Vincent Van Gogh to his brother possibly
provide one of the best insights into the anguished soul of the
painter. Here are some extracts from his letters.
“Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind
being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.”
“I am so angry with myself because I cannot do what I should like to do,
and at such a moment one feels as if one were lying bound hand and
foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless.”
“This is my ambition, which is founded less on anger than on love,
founded more on serenity than on passion. It is true that I am often in
the greatest misery, but still there is within me a calm, pure harmony
and music. In the poorest huts, in the dirtiest corner, I see drawings and
pictures. And with irresistible force my mind is drawn towards these
things. Believe me that sometimes I laugh heartily because people
suspect me of all kinds of malignity and absurdity, of which not a hair of
my head is guilty — I, who am really no one but a friend of nature, of
study, of work, and especially of people.”
“How much sadness there is in life! Nevertheless one must not become
melancholy. One must seek distraction in other things, and the right
thing is to work.”
“I believe more and more that to work for the sake of the work is the
principle of all great artists: not to be discouraged even though almost
starving, and though one feels one has to say farewell to all material
comfort.”
“I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is
enough?”
“Do you know that it is very, very necessary for honest people to remain
in art? Hardly anyone knows that the secret of beautiful work lies to a
great extent in truth and sincere sentiment.”
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