What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

The quote treats courage not as heroic bravado but as the basic condition for a meaningful life. By asking what life would be without the courage “to attempt anything,” it implies that value comes from striving—trying, risking failure, and acting despite fear—rather than from guaranteed success. The rhetorical question also suggests that timidity shrinks the world: without attempts, there is no learning, creation, or transformation. Read in light of van Gogh’s life and writing, it resonates as an ethic of persistence: the willingness to begin and continue, even when outcomes are uncertain, is what makes both art and ordinary existence feel alive and purposeful.