What lives in art and is eternally living, is first of all the painter and then the painting.

I always think photographs abominable, and I don't like to have them around, particularly not those of persons I know and love. Those photographic portraits wither much sooner than we ourselves do, whereas the painted portrait is a thing which is felt, done with love.

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

I would like to leave this world and never return. I severed my ear, but how I wish that I had severed my heart. I shall never amount to anything.

I always dream a painting like that, with a group of lively figures of the pals.

Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity.

I was certainly going the right way for a stroke when I left Paris. I paid for it nicely afterwards! When I stopped drinking, when I stopped smoking so much, when I began to think again instead of trying not to think - Good Lord, the depression and the prostration of it! Work in these magnificent natural surroundings (Arles) has restored my morale, but even now some efforts are too much for me: my strength fails me.