“I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.”
- March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890
- Dutch
- Painter, Post-Impressionist Artist, Pioneer of Modern Art
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Quote
“I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.”
Explanation
This quote expresses Van Gogh’s complex relationship with spirituality and creativity, revealing that while he could distance himself from traditional religious belief, he could not live without the transcendent force of artistic creation. He acknowledges his suffering, yet affirms that the act of creating—his connection to beauty, meaning, and expression—is essential to his existence. For him, this creative impulse replaces the role of God, becoming the sustaining power greater than himself.
Van Gogh once aspired to be a preacher, but later turned from institutional religion. However, he remained deeply spiritual, and this quote shows that his sense of the sacred shifted from theology to art. The “power to create” became his lifeline through suffering, a force that gave purpose to pain and form to feeling. In both his letters and his paintings, he treated creation not just as a craft, but as a necessity of the soul.
Today, Van Gogh’s words resonate with those who find meaning not in dogma but in the transformative experience of making, building, or expressing. For artists, writers, and thinkers, this quote affirms that creativity itself can be a form of faith—a force that sustains and uplifts when all else seems uncertain. In the midst of suffering, the ability to create becomes not only an act of resilience, but a reason to go on.
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