{"id":7041942,"date":"2026-08-19T17:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/the-letters-of-vincent-van-gogh-thoughts-on-papyrus\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T17:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:59:21","slug":"the-letters-of-vincent-van-gogh-thoughts-on-papyrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7041942","title":{"rendered":"The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh \u2013 Thoughts on Papyrus"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I am sharing a few quotes from an amazing book I have finished recently \u2013 The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh<\/em>. The artist wrote more than <\/em>2000 letters in his lifetime, principally to his brother Theo, and this Penguin edition reproduces some of them with commentary. <\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cThe need is for nothing less than the infinite and the miraculous<\/strong>, and a man does well to be satisfied with nothing less, and not to feel easy until he has gained it\u2026That is what all great men have acknowledged in their works, all those who have thought a little more deeply and searched and worked and loved a little more than the rest, who have plumbed the depths of the sea of life. Plumb the depths<\/strong>, that is what we too must do if we want to make a catch, and if we sometimes have to work the whole night through without catching anything, then we do well not to give up and to cast the net once more at dawn.<\/em>\u201c<\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cOne should never feel secure just because one has no difficulties or cares or handicaps, and one should never be too easy-going. Even in the politest circles and the best surroundings and circumstances one should retain something of the original character of a Robinson Crusoe or of primitive man, for otherwise one cannot be rooted in oneself, and one must never let the fire in one\u2019s soul die<\/strong>, for the time will inevitably come when it will be needed.<\/em>\u201d <\/mark><\/p>\n

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\u201cLove is the best and the noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire. Happy is he who has loved much, and is sure of himself, and although he may have wavered and doubted, he has kept that divine spark alive and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be. If only one keeps loving faithfully what is truly worth loving <\/strong>and does not squander one\u2019s love on trivial and insignificant and meaningless things then one will gradually obtain more light and grow stronger\u2026<\/em>\u201d <\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who leads an upright life and experiences real difficulty and disappointment and yet is not crushed by them is worth more than one for whom everything has always been plain sailing and who has known nothing but relative prosperity.<\/em>\u201d <\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cThere once was a man who went to church and asked, \u2018Can it be that my ardour has deceived me, that I have taken a wrong turning and managed things badly? Oh, if only I could be rid of this doubt and know for certain I shall come out victorious and succeed in the end.\u2019 And then a voice answered him, \u2018And if you were certain, what would you do then? Act now as if you were certain and you will not be disappointed<\/strong>.\u2019 Then the man went on his way, not unbelieving but believing, and returned to his work no longer doubting or wavering.\u201d<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2026can you tell what goes on within by looking at what happens outside? There may be a great fire in your soul, but no one ever comes to warm himself by it, all that passers-by can see is a little smoke coming out of the chimney and they walk on\u2026<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection\u2026wherever affection is revived, there life revives<\/em>\u201d [Van Gogh, July 1880]. <\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026it is the canvas which is frightened of the real painter, not the painter who is frightened of the canvas<\/em>.\u201d<\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cArt demands dogged work, work in spite of everything and continuous observation. By dogged, I mean in the first place incessant labour, but also not abandoning one\u2019s views upon the say-so of this person or that<\/em>.\u201d <\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cThe painter\u2019s duty is to immerse himself wholly in nature and to use all his intelligence for putting his feelings into his work, so that it becomes intelligible to others. But to my mind, working for the sake of sales is not exactly the way to do it, all it does is pull the wool over art lovers\u2019 eyes. And that is something true [artists] have never done, the sympathy they earn sooner or later arriving as the result of their sincerity<\/strong>\u2026<\/em>\u201c<\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t the language of painters so much as the language of nature<\/strong> that one should heed\u2026.The feeling for things themselves, for reality, is of greater importance than the feeling for painting; anyway it is more productive and more inspiring.<\/em>\u201c<\/mark><\/p>\n

\u201cFor great things do not just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together\u2026What is drawing? How does one come to it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do. How is one to get through that wall \u2013 since pounding at it is of no use? In my opinion one has<\/strong> to undermine that wall, filing through it steadily and patiently<\/strong>\u2026And as it is with art so it is with other things. And great things are not something accidental, they must be distinctly willed.\u201d<\/em> [Van Gogh, 21 July 1882, 4\/8 August 1883]<\/mark><\/p>\n