“It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“How difficult it is to be simple.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Normal people do not create art.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“First, we think all truth is beautiful, no matter how hideous its face may seem. We accept all of nature, without any repudiation. We believe there is more beauty in a harsh truth than in a pretty lie, more poetry in earthiness than in all the salons of Paris. We think pain is good because it is the most profound of all human feelings. We think sex is beautiful even when portrayed by a harlot and a pimp. We put character above ugliness, pain above prettiness and hard, crude reality above all the wealth in France. We accept life in its entirety without making moral judgments. We think the prostitute is as good as the countess, the concierge as good as the general, the peasant as good as the cabinet minister, for they all fit into the pattern of nature and are woven into the design of life!”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Loneliness is a kind of prison.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“I cannot draw a human figure if I don't know the order of his bones, muscles or tendons. Same is that I cannot draw a human face if I don't know what's going on his mind and heart. In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“On croit que j'imagine — ce n'est pas vrai — je me souviens.
[They say I imagine — it is not true — I remember.]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“I do not know a better cure for mental illness than a book.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Savoir souffrir sans se plaindre, ça c‘est la seule chose pratique, c‘est la grande science, la leçon à apprendre, la solution du problème de la vie.
[Knowing how to suffer without complaining is the only practical thing, it's the great science, the lesson to learn, the solution to the problem of life.]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Life's not so bad after all. There are not only poison but also antidotes.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“After all, the world is still great.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“I will be an artist. I am sure I will.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“[...] And suddenly Vincent clearly realised what his subconsciousness had known for a long time. All the talks about God are just childish elusion, just a lie that calms a scared and lonely ordinary mortal in a dark and neverending night. There is no God. Sure as fate - there is no God. There is only chaos - dismal, painful, cruel, agonizing, blind, endless chaos.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“A person may paint or talk about painting but he cannot do both at the same time.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Everyone has their own personality, its own character, and if he respects that, everything would finally fall over for good only.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“The paintings that laughed at him merrily from the walls were like nothing he had ever seen or dreamed of. Gone were the flat, thin surfaces. Gone was the sentimental sobriety. Gone was the brown gravy in which Europe had been bathing its pictures for centuries. Here were pictures riotously mad with the sun. With light and air and throbbing vivacity. Paintings of ballet girls backstage, done in primitive reds, greens, and blues thrown next to each other irreverantly. He looked at the signature. Degas.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“There are neither good nor evil, only the existence and action.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Who loves — lives, who lives - works, and who works has some bread.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“The one who has not seen Paris in the morning does not know how beautiful it is.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Our secret thoughts - do they ever show up? The small flame of our soul can be burning hot, but no one comes to its warmth. Passersby see only a small whiff going through the chimney. Don't we need to take care of that flame, cherish it and patiently wait until someone will come and sit at it, do we?”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Sometimes men are generous and forgiving, sometimes angry and blind.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Nature always resists the artist at the beginning.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
“Being mad is even pleasant. But only a madman understands that.”
― Irving Stone, quote from Lust for Life
Irving Stone
Born place: in San Francisco, California, The United States
Born date July 14, 1903
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“Sadness softened her nasal twang, that ubiquitous accent that had drifted out of the Appalachian hills and hollows, across the southern plains, across the southwestern deserts, insinuating itself all the way to the golden hills of California. But somewhere along the way, Rosie had picked up a gentler accent too, a fragrant voice more suited to whisper throaty, romantic words like Wisteria, or humid phrases like honeysuckle vine, her voice for gentleman callers. “Just fine,” she repeated. Even little displaced Okie girls grow up longing to be gone with some far better wind than that hot, cutting, dusty bite that’s blowing their daddy’s crops to hell and gone. I went to get her a beer, wishing it could be something finer.”
― James Crumley, quote from The Last Good Kiss
“Vorsichtshalber haben sie das Etikett 'Kapitalismus' ersetzt durch solche, auf denen 'freie Marktwirtschaft' und 'Konsumkultur' steht, nur roch das immer noch zu sehr nach Hund-frisst-Hund, nach allzu vielen Verlierern und maßlos abrahmenden Gewinnern. Wenn man die Hunde aber isch nicht miteinander balgen lässt, dann liegen sie den ganzen Tag im Zwinger und pennen. Im Grund besteht das Problem darin, dass die Gesellschaft anständig zu sein versucht, und mit Anstand ist gegen die menschliche Natur nichts auszurichten. Nicht das Geringste. Wir sollten alle wieder Jäger und Sammler werden, dann hätten wir eine hundertprozentige Beschäftigungsquote und ein gesundes Magenknurren.”
― John Updike, quote from Terrorist
“What makes a man a man are his deeds, his responsibilities, and his reactions... These things are also what makes a man a monster.”
― Shannon Delany, quote from 13 to Life
“The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.”
― Yukio Mishima, quote from Runaway Horses
“September showed up right on schedule, and lasted a whole month.”
― Jenny Wingfield, quote from The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
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Go Set a WatchmanBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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