Humanity is the salt of life

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 23 July 1882

I am glad that you have been reading Le Ventre de Paris . . . . I think it's splendid. I just want to ask you what you think of Mme. Francois, who lifted poor Florent into her cart and took him home when he was lying unconscious in the middle of the road where the greengrocers' carts were passing.

Though the other greengrocers cried, Let that drunkard lie, we have no time to pick men up out of the gutter, etc.

That figure of Mme. Francois stands out so calmly and nobly and sympathetically all through the book, against the background of the Halles, in contrast with the brutal egoism of the other women.

See, Theo, I think Mme. Francois is truly humane; and I have done, and will do, for Sien what I think someone like Mme. Francois would have done for Florent if he had not loved politics more than her. Look here, that humanity is the salt of life; I should not care to live without it, that's all.

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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