Reader > Reader's Quotes

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

“It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.”
― Lin Yutang

“I am not what I think I am, and I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am.”
― Charles Horton Cooley

“Every lover of books has authors whom he reads over and over again, whom he cares for as persons and not as sources of information, who are more to him, possibly, than any person he sees. He continually returns to the cherished companion and feeds eagerly upon his thought. It is because there is something in the book which he needs, which awakens and directs trains of thought that lead him where he likes to be led.”
― Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order

“To get away from one's working environment is; in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.”
― Charles Horton Cooley, Social organization; a study of the larger mind

“The unhappiness of men, maintained by Socrates, depends upon their badness being brought home to them in conscience. If, because of their insensibility or lack of proper reproof, the error of their way is not impressed upon them, they have no motive to reform. The fact that the evil-doer has become such gradually, and does not realize the evil in him, is no reason why we should not blame him; it is the function of blame to make him and others realize it, to define evil-doer when he is dead, or has sincerely and openly repented, not while he remains a force for wrong.”
― Charles H. Cooley, Social Organization by Charles H. Cooley

“I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.”
― Vincent Willem van Gogh

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“The sadness will last forever.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly'.”
― Vincent Willem van Gogh

“I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expatiating on this theme it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”
― Vincent Van Gogh