What is in will out

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887

I don't want to be included among the melancholy or those who turn sour and bitter or ill-tempered. "To understand everything is to forgive everything," and I believe that if we knew everything we should attain some serenity. Now, having as much of that serenity as possible, even when one knows little or nothing for certain, is perhaps a better remedy for all ills than what is sold in the pharmacy. Much of it comes by itself, one grows and develops of one's own accord.

So don't study and grind away too much, for that makes one sterile. Enjoy yourself too much rather than too little, and don't take art and love too seriously - there is very little one can do about it, it is mainly a question of temperament. . . .

Anyway, it's not a bad idea for you to become an artist, for when one has fire within oneself and a soul, one cannot keep bottling them up - better to burn than to burst, what is in will out. For me, for instance, it is a relief to do a painting, and without that I should be more miserable than I am.

Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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