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The dreamer sometimes falls into the doldrums, but is said to emerge from them again. And the absent-minded person also makes up for it with bouts of perspicacity. Sometimes he is a person whose right to exist has a justification that is not always immediately obvious to you, or more usually, you may absent-mindedly allow it to slip from your mind. Someone who has been wandering about for a long time, tossed to and fro on a stormy sea, will in the end reach his destination. Someone who has seemed to be good for nothing, unable to fill any job, any appointment, will find one in the end and, energetic and capable, will prove himself quite different from what he seemed at first.

Vincent Van Gogh#12

ResilienceStruggleSuccessPerseveranceDreamsHuman natureSelf worthTime

About this quote

What does it mean?
Dreamers and absent-minded people may struggle or seem useless at times, but they often possess hidden value and eventually find their place or purpose.
In plain terms
People who seem lost or unfocused can still succeed and prove their worth in the end.
What can you take from it?
Trust that perseverance and inner worth will eventually be recognized.

Where it applies

  • career setbacks
  • misunderstood individuals
  • long-term struggles

Putting it to work

  • encourage struggling peers
  • reflect on personal value
  • patience in evaluation

Questions to consider

  • Who have you dismissed too quickly?
  • How do you handle periods of uncertainty?

Another view

Not everyone who wanders or seems unfocused will necessarily find success.

More from Vincent Van Gogh

  1. Try to grasp the essence of what the great artists, the serious masters, say in their masterpieces, and you will again find God in them. One man has written or…

    Permalink to quote #11
  2. There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness …

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. I think that everything that is really good and beautiful, the inner, moral, spiritual and sublime beauty in men and their works, comes from God, and everythin…

    Permalink to quote #10

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