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About this quote

What does it mean?
Van Gogh questions the judgment that his lack of stable work means he is failing or doing nothing.
In plain terms
He asks if being unemployed and struggling really means he has achieved nothing.
What can you take from it?
Lack of traditional success does not mean one is doing nothing.

Where it applies

  • unemployment
  • career gaps
  • self doubt

Putting it to work

  • redefine productivity
  • question societal standards

Questions to consider

  • How do you measure your own worth?
  • Is value only found in steady work?

Another view

It does not address the practical costs of long term unemployment.

More from Vincent Van Gogh

  1. I have often neglected my appearance. I admit it, and I also admit that it is 'shocking.' But look here, lack of money and poverty have something to do with it…

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  2. What is true is that I have at times earned my own crust of bread, and at other times a friend has given it to me out of the goodness of his heart. I have live…

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  3. That God of the clergymen, He is for me as dead as a doornail. But am I an atheist for all that? The clergymen consider me as such - be it so; but I love, and …

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