Van Gogh: "I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate"

"There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even-the French air clears up the brain and does good-a world of good".

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

"The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism".

"If ... boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?"

"To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace".

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

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