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One wants to be an honest man; one is so, one works hard; but still one cannot make both ends meet; on must give up the work, there is no chance of carrying it out without spending more on it than one gets back for it; one gets a feeling of shortcoming, of not keeping one's promises. One is afraid of making friends; like an old leper, one would like to call from afar: Don't come too near me, for intercourse with me brings you sorrow and loss. One cannot present oneself as somebody who comes to propose a good business or who has a plan which will bring great profit. On the contrary, it is clear that it will end with a deficit, and still one feels a power surging within; one has work to do and it must be done. One must set to work with a calm, everyday face, live one's ordinary life, get along with the models, with the man who comes for the rent, with everybody, in fact. You must not think of me as afraid.

Vincent Willem Van Gogh#73

WorkPurposePovertyMoney

About this quote

What does it mean?
Financial failure and isolation clash with an inner drive to work.
In plain terms
I can't make money but I still feel I must work.
What can you take from it?
Purpose persists despite financial failure.

Where it applies

  • creative poverty
  • business struggle
  • isolation

Putting it to work

  • keep working anyway
  • seek patrons

Questions to consider

  • What drives you when broke?
  • How do you handle debt?

Another view

Financial stability is often needed to sustain work.

More from Vincent Willem Van Gogh

  1. One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

    Permalink to quote #72
  2. Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.

    Permalink to quote #74
  3. One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their w…

    Permalink to quote #71

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