When we look at a drop of water under a microscope we see how the large wriggling particles gobble up the small ones and grow even bigger. That is the essence of life.
As long as man is a human and not an ideal creature, he is only 50% human and 50% beast. In fact, I'd say I'm being too kind, too humane with that fifty-fifty split. Looking at our life today – and in the past as well – I'd say that barely 10% would be closer to the truth.
The best proof of that is the absence of communism or of the Kingdom of God on earth. So far it's not working.
If only Van Gogh had visited America, in particular New York. Then we would have seen a lot more eternal masterpieces such as the potato eaters. And there are a lot of those kinds of people here.
...There's no Van Gogh there who could draw those absolutely savage figures who have lost any semblance of humanity and who are morally, mentally and physically ravaged. And these are not alcoholics or beggars; these are the utterly morally and physically devastated individuals living on the street – I mean homeless vagrants and people like them. This subject is also of great concern to me, though I think in more decorative terms. Yet that purely psychological element exists here...When you look into the eyes of a person who is utterly ravaged, but continues to laugh – even though it may be a senseless laugh – that creates an unbelievably strong impression. Sometimes, particularly during the period after I had just arrived, I was literally stunned by that sight.