Vincent van Gogh

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

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

There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as between an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and it was a good lamp, but now it sheds light, too, and that is its real function. And love makes one more calm about many things, and so one is more fit for one's work.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic that to love others.

Love is something eternal-the aspects may change, but not the essence. There is the same diflference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is buming. The lamp was there and it is a good lamp, but now it is shedding light, too, and that is its real function.

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.

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.

Still, there is a calm, pure harmony, and music inside of me.

The fishermen know the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.