Living with resolve and thoughtfulness

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

What matters is deeds, not some abstract idea. I only approve of principles and think them worth the trouble if they turn into deeds, and I think it is good to reflect and to try to be conscientious, because this concentrates a man's energies and combines his various actions into a whole. The people you describe would, I believe, be more resolute if they thought more clearly about what they were going to do, but for the rest I greatly prefer the likes of them to people who parade their principles without taking the slightest trouble or even thinking about putting them into practice. For the latter gain nothing from the most beautiful principles and the former are precisely the people who, if they come round to living with resolve and thoughtfulness, might do something great. For great things do not just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what