Vincent Van Gogh

"A good picture is equivalent to a good deed. "

"Do not quench your inspiration and your inmagination do not become the slave of your model. "

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. "

"How can I be useful, of what service can I be There is something inside me, what can it be "

"I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate. "

"I wish they would only take me as I am. "

"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. "

"If one is the master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time insight into and understanding of many things. "

"It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent. "

"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. "

"Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more. "

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well. "

"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it. Passersby see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way. "

"Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall. "

"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul. "

"The best way to know God is to love many things. "

"There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke. "

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything "