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People are often unable to do anything, imprisoned as they are in I don't know what kind of terrible, terrible, oh such terrible cage. I do know that there is a release, the belated release. A justly or unjustly ruined reputation, poverty, disastrous circumstances, misfortune, they all turn you into a prisoner. You cannot always tell what keeps you confined, what immures you, what seems to bury you, and yet you can feel those elusive bars, railings, walls. Is all this illusion, imagination? I don't think so. And then one asks: My God! will it be for long, will it be for ever, will it be for eternity?

Vincent Willem Van Gogh#14

FeelingConfinementDespairFreedomMisfortune

About this quote

What does it mean?
People often feel trapped by circumstances they cannot easily explain or escape.
In plain terms
People feel trapped by invisible bars of circumstance.
What can you take from it?
Life can feel like an invisible prison.

Where it applies

  • feeling stuck
  • dealing with loss
  • feeling helpless

Putting it to work

  • identify what traps you
  • seek release
  • acknowledge bars

Questions to consider

  • What keeps you confined?
  • Is freedom always possible?

Another view

Some constraints are real and may not have a clear release.

More from Vincent Willem Van Gogh

  1. 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
  2. Do you know what makes the prison disappear? Every deep, genuine affection. Being friends, being brothers, loving, that is what opens the prison, with supreme …

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. 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 perspicac…

    Permalink to quote #12

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