Deborah Heiligman > Quotes

“I wish you knew how I value you; and what an inexpressible blessing it is to have one whom one can always trust, one always the same, always ready to give comfort, sympathy and the best advice. God bless you, my dear, you are too good for me.' -Charles to Emma, 1859”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“You must remember that you are my prime treasure (and always have been).'
Emma Darwin to husband Charles”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“(D)ying is hard, but living is harder still.

—Vincent van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“I keep on making what I can't do yet in order to learn to be able to do it.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“What a mystery life is, and love is a mystery within a mystery.
-Vincent Van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“How much there is in art that is beautiful, if only one can remember what one has seen, one is never empty or truly lonely, and never alone.
-Vincent Van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“It is better to be fervent in spirit, even if one accordingly makes more mistakes, than narrow-minded and overly cautious.

—Vincent van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“My heart has often been too full to speak.' -Emma to husband Charles on her gratitude for 'the cheerful and affectionate looks you have given me when I know you have been miserably uncomfortable.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“Who a person becomes later in life, how he lives, how he dies, cloud's people's memories of him, spinning and skewing-distorting-their portraits of him as a child. But we will draw Vincent as clearly as we can using not only impressions but also strong lines, sharp details. A picture will emerge.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“We must be more and more to each other, my dear wife.' -Charles Darwin to wife Emma upon loss of daughter Annie”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“Uncle Cor once had asked Vincent if he would feel anything for a woman or a girl who was beautiful, 'but I said I would have more feeling for and would prefer to be involved with one who was ugly or old or impoverished or in some way unhappy, who has acquired understanding and a soul through experience of life and trial and error, or sorrow.'
-Vincent Van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“It is feeling and not reasoning that drives one to prayer.' -Emma to Charles”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“But precisely because love is so strong, we are, especially in our youth...usually not strong enough to maintain a straight course.

—Vincent van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures,”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“The years between 20 and 30 are full of all sorts of dangers, full of great danger, yea, the danger of sin and death. —Vincent to Theo, early September”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“I have ceased to think even of barnacles!' -Charles Darwin”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“The world would not have Vincent without Theo.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“More than any woman I ever knew, she comforted.' -Mrs. Huxley about Emma”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“Spring is slowly coming. It was raw and cold for oh so long. Now it’s becoming lovely, and people, like nature, sometimes thaw out when the sun shines.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“After all, we’re in the midst of life—well then, we must fight a good fight—and we must become men. —Vincent to Theo, May 31, 1877”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“O Lord, join us intimately to one another and let our love for Thee make that bond ever stronger.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“There were still few rules at Down House, and Charles was not very good at enforcing the ones he and Emma did make. This was well known among his children. In 1855, when Lenny was about five, Charles walked in to find his son jumping up and down and tumbling all over a new sofa.

'Oh Lenny, Lenny,' Charles said. 'You know it is against all rules.'

'Then,' Lenny said to his papa, 'I think you'd better go out of the room.'

And so Charles did.”
― Heiligman Deborah

“We shall me much less miserable together.' -Emma Darwin to husband Charles upon grief for loss of daughter Annie”
― Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

“As summer turns to fall, Vincent, at twenty-six, is alone.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“...his paintings are distinctly Vincent:
vivid colors
thick paint
textured fields and skies and flowers and trees and houses
all in blues and oranges and yellows and pinks and
whites and greens and reds.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“Colour expresses something in itself.
-Vincent Van Gogh”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“But sometimes a person who seems easy is one whose calm outside belies a troubled and turbulent inside.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“God Only Knows the Issue.”
― Heiligman Deborah

“He doesn’t talk about his past, or his future. He passionately wants to make something of his life, to make an offering to the world. And to his family. He doesn’t want to make letterheads! How can he be true to himself and keep the bond with his family?”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

“keep on making what I can’t do yet in order to learn to be able to do it.”
― Deborah Heiligman, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers