"On the other hand, whoever wants to do human figures must have what I noticed on the corner of a Christmas number of Punch: 'Good will to all,' and that to a high degree. We must sympathize with everyone and continue to do so, otherwise our work will be cold and weak. I consider it so necessary for us to watch ourselves and to take care not to become disillusioned; and therefore it is better not to get mixed up with what I call artists' intrigues. Against such things I want on the contrary always to be on the defensive. I think of the old proverb, 'Men do not gather figs from thistles,' when I see the satisfaction people get from going round with artists. I believe it is Thomas a Kempis who says somewhere: 'I never mingle with men without feeling that I was a lesser man.' The same with me; the more I associate with painters, the weaker I feel. Only when one feels that work undertaken by oneself is too much for one person, one must cooperate and combine forces seriously. In most cases the matter ends in drinking a glass of wine together and leaving things as they were."

— Vincent Van Gogh , October 1882

“No chagrin is more rankling and yet less apparent to a man than the disappointment which lies in knowing his own capacities and feeling the world will not or cannot employ them.”

— Michel de Montaigne