More Vincent

It is difficult to leave a country until you have done something to prove that you have felt and loved it.

Success is about the worst thing that can happen.

~ Doesn't it often seem as if he is making excuses? And yet, I know exactly what he means.

More R.v.R.

Maniacs of the written word can always find something to disagree about.

[I had to] accept the world as God had made it, not as I thought that he ought to have made it or as I would have made it if I had been given the chance.

The most intelligent of men must be crazy on some one point to be really well-balanced and a useful member of society.

And finally, when the author's efforts at doctoring mankind had failed --

I had tried to benefit mankind...to the best of my ability. I had tried to be of some service to those who were less fortunate than I. And they had risen in their wrath and had destroyed me because I had dared to deprive them of what was dearer to them than life itself -- their misery.

~ With heartfelt thanks to Mr. Hendrick van Loon, a brilliant man in any age. And as all brilliant men - and women - must be, misunderstood by all but his closest friends.

The Life and Times of Rembrandt van Rijn

For the lonely pioneers who do the work the rest of us shirk ask for very little. They are willing to go hungry and to slave for mean wages and to be humiliated by those who in God's own good time, in a thousand different ways, won't be allowed to hold the stirrup of their horses.

~ From R.v.R. by a gentleman named van Loon, who claims to have been a contemporary of the famous Dutch Baroque artist, Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt died a pauper, his work largely unappreciated in his time, and his lack of financial success due in no small part to his inability to do anything other than work on this art. That is, he was not a good business man. He never sacrificed his vision. As far as I know, he was buried in a unmarked grave. Though they may have made one up by now, for the tourists.

In the words of the Stinging Butterfly

The time has gone by when a man shall be born without being consulted.

~ James Whistler, American painter extraordinaire

Whistler was very much like Prince (he who shall not be named) in his day. He was very short, dressed very flamboyantly, and liked to wear high shoes. His signature consisted of a butterfly with the tail of a scorpion. When people tried to peg him for a Midwestern boy, he would say, 'I do not choose to be born there.' He was one of the pioneers of 'art for art's sake.' For a time, he was good friends with Oscar Wilde, who is thought to have stolen some of his quips.

In the words of Vincent

If only one can remember what one has seen, one is never alone.

There may be a fire within our soul, but no one comes to warm themselves at it; they only see the smoke as they are passing by --- and move on.

I am not an adventurer by choice but by Fate.

As long as there are men alive, the dead will live.

~ From the letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of Vincent or of his art, but he did have some wonderfully melancholy things to say and paint.