Vincent Van Gogh citáty

page 5

„Srdce človeka je veľmi podobné moru, má svoje búrky, má svoje prílivy a vo svojich hĺbkach má aj svoje perly.“

„Ak skutočne milujete prírodu, všade nájdete krásu.“

„Smútok bude trvať večne.“

„Tí, ktorí snívajú cez deň, si uvedomujú mnohé veci, ktoré unikajú tým, ktorí snívajú len v noci.“

„Normálnosť je vyšliapaná cesta: Je príjemné na nej chodiť, ale nerastú po nej žiadne kvety.“

„Hľadám, snažím sa, celým svojím srdcom.“

„Nechajte nás pracovať srdcom a dovoľte nám, aby sme naozaj milovali to, čo milujeme.“

„Je možné, že ľudia, ktorí neurobia nič iné ako to, že sa zaľúbia, sú užitočnejší ako tí, ktorí svoju lásku a srdce obetujú určitej idei.“

„Život sa postupne stáva stále ťažším, ale pri zápase s ťažkosťami sa rozvíja najvnútornejšia sila srdca.“

„Buďte si jasne vedomí hviezd a nekonečna. Potom sa život zdá byť skoro ako začarovaný.“

„Čo by bolo zo života, keby sme nemali odvahu robiť experimenty?“

„Poviem ti, čím viac nadštáým premýšľam, tým viac čítam; že neexistuje väčšie umenie, ako je milovať ľudi.“

„Je lepšie mať výbušnú povahu, aj keď sa často dopúšťame chýb, než byť úzkostlivo a nemiestne opatrný.“

„Jedného dňa nás smrť prenesie na inú hviezdu.“

„Kto prírodu opravdivo miluje, nachádza všade krásu.“

„Výsledkom myslenia nemá byť pocit, ale čin“

„Neúspešný pokus o samovraždu je najlepším liekom na neskoršiu samovraždu.“

„Jediný čas, kedy sa cítim nažive je, keď maľujem.“

„Milovať je ľahké; to neľahké na láske je len to, aby nás zasa niekto miloval.“

„Prajem si, aby ma brali takého, aký som.“

„Láska objavuje na milovanej osobe stále nové svetadiely.“

„Najlepší spôsob ako poznať Boha, je milovať mnoho vecí.“

„Krása ženstva je súčasťou prírody, zatiaľ čo sila mužnosti súčasťou vesmíru.“

„Kto ľúbi žije. Kto žije, pracuje. Kto pracuje, ten má chlieb.“

„Je dobré milovať veľa vecí, pretože v nich spočíva skutočná sila, a ktokoľvek miluje veľa, veľa robí a môže toho veľa dosiahnuť a to, čo sa dosiahne s láskou, je dobre vykonané.“

„Veľké veci nevznikajú z náhleho impulzu, ale z množstva malých vecí pospájaných dohromady.“

„Človek by mal žiť ako mních, ktorý však raz za dva týždne navštívi bordel.“

„Namiesto premýšľania o tom, aký som umelec, radšej skúmam, ako sú ruky, nohy a hlava spojené s ostatným telom.“

„Predovšetkým nesmieme zabudnúť na veľkú súvislosť vecí. Uzavrieť sa, znamená zamurovať sa a zamurovať sa znamená smrť.“

„Správne a nesprávne neexistujú oddelene, ale ako čierna a biela v prírode.“

„Ľudia, ´milujme, čo milujeme, sa opiera o základnú pravdu. Tá základná pravda znie: "Sme ľudia a milujeme."“

„Radšej by som zomrel od vášne ako od nudy.“

„... ale zas, mám prírodu, umenie a poéziu, a ak toto nestačí, tak čo potom?“

„Veľké veci sú tvorené sériami malých vecí, ktoré sa spoja.“

„Rybári vedia, že more je nebezpečné a búrka je desivá, ale nikdy im nepripadali tieto nebezpečenstvá ako dostatočný dôvod na to, aby zostali na brehu.“

„Ešte som ďaleko od toho, čím chcem byť, ale s Božou pomocou sa mi tam určite podarí dostať.“

„Je dobré dokázať presvedčenie, že všetko je omnoho čarovnejšie, ako môžeme pochopiť, pretože toto je pravda.“

„Stále viac a viac sa snažím byť sám sebou a relatívne málo sa starám o to, či s tým ľudia súhlasia alebo nesúhlasia.“

“.. by going on drawing those types of working people, etc., I hope to arrive at the point of being able to do illustration work for papers and books.”

“And my aim in my life is to make picture and drawings, as many and as well as I can, then, at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking: "Oh, pictures I might have made!" Theo, I declare I prefer to think how arms, legs, head are attached to the trunk, rather than whether I myself am or am not more or less an artist.”

“I repeat, let us paint as much as we can and be productive, and be ourselves with all our faults and qualities; I say us, because the money from you [Theo], which I know costs you trouble enough to procure me, gives you the right, when there is some good in my work, to consider half of it your creation.”

“All my work is in a way founded on Japanese art... Japanese art, in decadence in its own country, takes root again among the French impressionist artists.”

“We walked along Buitenkant and there by the sand works at the Oosterspoor [former train-station in Amsterdam], I can' tell you how beautiful it was there in the twilight. Rembrandt, Michel, [French Barbizon painter] and others have painted it, the ground dark, the sky still lit by the glow of the sun, already gone down, the row of houses and towers standing out above, the lights in the windows everywhere, everything reflected in the water. And the people and carriages like small black figures everywhere. Like one sometimes sees in a Rembrandt. And it put us in such a mood that we began talking about all sorts of things.”

“You will say that I am not a success - vaincre or être vaincu, [to conquer or to be conquered], it doesn't matter to me, one has feeling and movement in any event, and they are more akin than they may seem to be or than can be put into words.”

“I said to Mauve: Do you approve of my coming here for a month or so and troubling you for some advice now and then, after that time I will have over come the first 'petites miseres' of painting... Well, Mauve at once set me down before a still life of a pair of old wooden shoes and some other objects, and so I could set to work.”

“What a queer thing touch is, the stroke of the brush. In the open air, exposed to wind, to sun, to the curiosity of the people, you work as you can, you feel your canvas anyhow... But when after a time you take up again this study and arrange your brush strokes in the direction of the objects - certainly it is more harmonious and pleasant to look at, and you add whatever you have of serenity and cheerfulness.”

“Your description of Troyon and Rousseau, for instance, is lively enough to give me some idea of which of their manners they are done in. There were other paintings from the time of Troyon's municipal pasture that had a certain 'mood' that one would have to call 'dramatic', even though they aren't figure paintings.”

“This one thing remains: faith; one feels instinctively that many things are changing and that everything will change. We are living in the last quarter of a century which will end again in an enormous revolution.... we shall certainly not live to see the better times of pure air and the refreshing of the old society after those big storms. We are still in the closeness but the following generations will be able to breathe in freely.”

“When I am writing I instinctively make a little drawing now and then like the one I sent you lately, and for instance, this morning, 'Elijah in the Desert.”

“There are things which we feel to be good and true, though in the cold light of reason and calculation many things remain incomprehensible and dark. And though the society in which we live considers such actions thoughtless, or reckless, or I don't know what else, what can we say if once the hidden forces of sympathy and love have been roused in us? And though it may be that we cannot argue against the reasoning sentiment and to act from impulse, one would almost conclude that some people have cauterized certain sensitive nerves within them, especially those which, combined, are called conscience. Well, I pity those people; they travel through life without compass, in my opinion.”

“Now I as a painter shall never stand for anything of importance. I feel it utterly... I sometimes regret I did not simply keep to the Dutch palette [of Dutch impressionism ] with its grey tones, and have brushed away at landscapes of Montmartre [in 1886-87] with no ado.”

“When I was…. in the surroundings of pictures and things of art… I then had a violent passion for them… And I do not repent it, for even now, far from that land, I am often homesick for the land of pictures. Now for more than five years already, I do not know exactly how long, I'm more or less without employment, wandering here and there… But you will ask what is your definite aim? That aim becomes more definite, will stand out slowly and surely, as the rough draft becomes a sketch and the sketch becomes a picture…. my only anxiety is: how can I be of use in the world, cannot I serve some purpose and be of any good, how can I learn more and study profoundly certain subjects?”

“But tell me, black and white, may they be used or not, are they forbidden fruit? You... think that when the shadows are dark, ay, black, that it is all wrong then, don't you? I don't think so... Rembrandt and Hals, didn't they use black? And Velasquez???”

“Do you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection. Being friends, being brothers, loving, that is what opens the prison, with supreme power, by some magic force. Without these one stays dead. But whenever affection is revived, there life revives.”

“Now, such an enterprise as would be the drawing and printing [by lithography ] of a series of, for instance, thirty pages of types of workmen, a sower, a digger, a woodcutter, a plowman, a wash-woman, then also a child's cradle or a man from the almshouse - well, the whole immeasurable field lies open, there are plenty of beautiful subjects - I should think the following would be the best way: as it is useful and necessary that Dutch drawings are made, printed, and spread, destined for the houses of workmen, a few persons should unite in order to use their full strength for this end.”

“You know what I want. If I may become a clergyman, if I fulfill that position so that my work is equal to that of our Father [who was a clergy-man], then I shall thank God. I have good hope that I shall succeed, it was once said to me by someone who was further on in life than I, and who was no stranger in Jerusalem:… I believe that you are a Christian, you see, it was so good for me to hear those words… It is good to believe that there is a God who knows what we need, better than we know it ourselves, and who helps us when we need help. It is also good to believe that, just as in the olden days, now, too, an angel is not far from those who feel godly sorrow… I've carefully read the story of Elijah so often, and so often has it given me strength up to now:”

“.. You know that I think a society of impressionists would be a good thing of the same nature as the Society of the Twelve English Pre-Raphaelites, and I think that it could come into existence. Then I incline to think that the artists would guarantee mutually among themselves a livelihood, each consenting to give a considerable number of pictures to the Society, and that the gains as well as the losses should be taken in common.”

“. You would also be mistaken if you [Theo] thought that I would do well to follow your advice literally, of becoming an engraver of bill-headings and visiting cards, or a bookkeeper or a carpenter's apprentice, - or else to devote myself to the baker's trade, - or many similar things.... that other people advise me.”

“Theo, your brother has preached for the first time last Sunday in God's dwelling.... it is a delightful thought that in the future wherever I shall come I shall preach the gospel; to do that well, one must have the gospel in one's heart, may the Lord give it to me.”

“At the moment I quite often go to draw with Breitner [in the streets of The Hague], a young painter who's acquainted with Rochussen as I am with Mauve. He draws very skilfully and very differently from me, and we often draw types together in the soup kitchen or the waiting room &c. He sometimes comes to my studio to look at woodcuts, and I go to see the ones he has as well.”

“Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.”

“Well, right now it seems that things are going very badly for me, have been doing so for some considerable time, and may continue to do so well into the future. But it is possible that everything will get better after it has all seemed to go wrong. I am not counting on it, it may never happen, but if there should be a change for the better I should regard that as a gain, I should rejoice, I should say, at last! So there was something after all!”

“Like me, for instance, who can count so many years in my life when I completely lost all inclination to laugh, leaving aside whether or not this was my own fault, I for one need above all just to have a good laugh. I found that in Guy de Maupassant and there are others here, Rabelais among the old writers, Henri Rochefort among today's, where one can find that — Voltaire in 'Candide'. On the contrary, if one wants truth, life as it is, De Goncourt, for example, in 'Germinie Lacerteux', 'La fille Elisa', Zola in 'La joie de vivre' and 'L'assommoir' and so many other masterpieces paint life as we feel it ourselves and thus satisfy that need which we have, that people tell us the truth. The work of the French naturalists Zola, Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, De Goncourt, Richepin, Daudet, Huysmans is magnificent and one can scarcely be said to belong to one's time if one isn't familiar with them.”

“Of all the colors I ordered: the three chromes, the Prussian blue, the emerald, the crimson lakes, the malachite green, all the orange lead, hardly one of them is to be found on the Dutch palette, in Maris, in Mauve or Israels - [all contemporaries of Vincent, Dutch painters of the Hague School. ]”

“My dear Theo, Thanks for your letter of this morning. Yesterday I saw the Corot exhibition. It included a painting of the 'Mount of Olives'; I'm glad he painted that. On the right, a group of olive trees, dark against the darkening blue sky; in the background hills covered with shrubs and a couple of tall trees, above them the evening star.... I've also seen the Louvre and the Luxembourg, as you can imagine. The Ruisdaels in the Louvre are magnificent, especially 'The bush', 'The breakwater' and 'The ray of sunlight.”

“The love between brothers is a strong support through life, that is an old truth, let us look for that support, may experience strengthen the bond between us, and let us be true and outspoken toward each other, let there he no secrets — as it is now.”

“I tell you, brother, I am not good from a clergyman's point of view. I know full well that, frankly speaking, prostitutes are bad, but I feel something human in them which makes me feel not the least scruple to associate with them; I see nothing very wrong in them... And now, as in other periods of decline of civilization, the corruption of society has turned upside down all relations of good and evil, and one falls back logically on the old saying: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."”