 |
Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night (1889)
Museum of Modern Art, New York City |
I think that everything that is really good and beautiful, the inner, moral, spiritual and sublime beauty in men and their works, comes from God, and everything that is bad and evil in the works of men and in men is not from God, and God does not approve of it. But I cannot help thinking that the best way of knowing God is to love many things. Love this friend, this person, this thing, whatever you like, and you will be on the right road to understanding Him better, that is what I keep telling myself. But you must love with a sublime, genuine, profound sympathy, with devotion, with intelligence, and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. That will lead to God, that will lead to an unshakeable faith.
~ Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1880
What a wonderful thought it is that the best way of knowing God is to love many things "but you must love with a sublime, genuine, profound sympathy, with devotion, with intelligence!" Take a starry night sky, for example...
