The Courage to Create: Van Gogh’s Philosophy of Attempting Life
Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch Post-Impressionist master now celebrated as one of history’s greatest painters, penned the question “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” during a period of profound personal struggle and artistic awakening. This deceptively simple query emerged from the letters he exchanged with his brother Theo, particularly during the 1880s when Vincent was attempting to establish himself as an artist in Paris and later in the south of France. The quote encapsulates van Gogh’s fundamental belief that existence without risk, without the willingness to pursue one’s passions despite overwhelming odds, amounts to a kind of living death. For a man who would attempt thousands of paintings, fail repeatedly at securing gallery representation, and endure crushing loneliness, this wasn’t mere philosophical musing—it was a hard-won conviction born from lived experience and desperate determination.
To understand the power of van Gogh’s words, one must grasp the circumstances of his life preceding this quote. Born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a small village in North Brabant, Vincent was the son of a Protestant minister and grew up in an environment of religious devotion and moral seriousness. He inherited his father’s calling to serve humanity, but his path to finding his vocation proved tortuous and unconventional. After failed attempts at formal education, missionary work, and various other pursuits, van Gogh stumbled upon art almost accidentally in his late twenties—a remarkably late start by any standard. His decision to become an artist at age twenty-seven was not greeted with enthusiasm by his family, who viewed it as an impractical and disreputable choice. Yet it was precisely this moment of choosing to attempt something impossibly difficult that catalyzed one of history’s most remarkable creative trajectories.
What many people overlook about van Gogh is that he was not a natural or instinctively gifted artist in the traditional sense. He did not possess innate technical brilliance or enter the art world with the confidence of a prodigy. Instead, van Gogh learned his craft with methodical determination, filling sketchbooks obsessively and teaching himself through relentless practice. During his early years in Belgium, he created dark, somber works influenced by Realism, focusing on the hardship and dignity of peasants and miners. It wasn’t until he moved to Paris in 1886 that he encountered the vibrant palettes and revolutionary techniques of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, which transformed his artistic vision entirely. This reinvention—the courage to abandon one approach and embrace radically new methods—demonstrates that his philosophy wasn’t abstract; it was rooted in the actual terrifying experience of starting over, of attempting things that might fail, of pushing beyond one’s current limitations.
The context in which van Gogh wrote about courage is inseparable from his relationship with his brother Theo, an art dealer who provided both financial and emotional support. Through these letters, we see a man wrestling daily with doubt, poverty, rejection, and mental illness, yet continuing to paint with almost manic intensity. He attempted to establish artist colonies, attempted friendships with fellow artists (most infamously with Paul Gauguin), attempted to find love, and attempted relentlessly to create work that mattered. Nearly every major attempt ended in failure or heartbreak. He sold very few paintings during his lifetime and died in relative obscurity, believing himself a failure. Yet his philosophy of courage through attempted action persisted throughout his ordeal. Van Gogh understood that to attempt something is already to succeed in a fundamental way—to have overcome the paralyzing inertia of fear and accepted the vulnerability of trying.
The broader cultural impact of this quote has grown substantially in the more than a century since van Gogh’s death, particularly as his reputation shifted from obscurity to veneration. As his paintings became recognized as masterpieces and his life story became legendary, his words took on additional resonance. In the twentieth century, especially during periods of social upheaval and questioning of conventional success, van Gogh became an icon for creative courage and artistic integrity. His quote has been invoked in contexts ranging from motivational literature to business seminars, though sometimes in ways that strip away the existential weight he meant to convey. Modern audiences, struggling with perfectionism, fear of failure, and social anxiety, have embraced his words as permission to be imperfect, to create despite having no guarantee of success, to attempt things that might never be finished or seen by others.
Lesser-known aspects of van Gogh’s life add surprising dimensions to his philosophy of courage. Few people realize that van Gogh attempted suicide several times and that his famous ear-cutting incident, long misrepresented as a complete severing, was far more complicated and occurred during a mental health crisis. What’s remarkable is that even after this breakdown, even while institutionalizing himself at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, he continued to paint prolifically and experimentally. His period of institutionalization, rather than representing defeat, became one of his most creatively fertile periods. He also attempted poetry, attempted novel-writing, and attempted correspondence with other artists—most attempts relatively fruitless—yet each represented an assertion of his belief that life demands the attempt itself. Additionally, van Gogh was deeply concerned with social justice and initially wanted to use his art to serve the poor and marginalized,