The civilized man
Vincent van Gogh to his parents, from Drenthe, c. 27 October 1883
Recently I had a conversation with the man whom I board with, who is a farmer himself. . . . I told him that in my opinion a simple farmer who works, and works intelligently, is the civilized man, that it has always been so and always will be, that in the country one finds an example of it here and there, and in the city one finds a few men who are almost as noble, though in quite a different way, among the very, very rare excellent people. But that in my opinion it goes no further, and that in general there is more chance of finding a reasonable human being in the country than in the city. And that in my opinion the nearer one gets to the large cities, the further one gets into the darkness of degeneration and stupidity and wickedness.
Letter 334
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
Recently I had a conversation with the man whom I board with, who is a farmer himself. . . . I told him that in my opinion a simple farmer who works, and works intelligently, is the civilized man, that it has always been so and always will be, that in the country one finds an example of it here and there, and in the city one finds a few men who are almost as noble, though in quite a different way, among the very, very rare excellent people. But that in my opinion it goes no further, and that in general there is more chance of finding a reasonable human being in the country than in the city. And that in my opinion the nearer one gets to the large cities, the further one gets into the darkness of degeneration and stupidity and wickedness.
Letter 334
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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