Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

This line is from Vincent van Gogh’s correspondence, where he often framed artistic vocation in moral and emotional terms rather than purely technical ones. In letters written during his early years of serious self-training—when he was striving to become an artist and wrestling with doubt, discipline, and purpose—van Gogh repeatedly urged himself and others to cultivate empathy and attachment to life: to people, nature, work, and everyday things. In that setting, “love” is not sentimental but a sustaining force that fuels perseverance and craft, linking inner devotion to outward accomplishment.

Van Gogh argues that the capacity to love broadly is a kind of power: it enlarges one’s energy, patience, and willingness to labor. “Loves much performs much” suggests that commitment and care generate productivity, not the other way around. The final clause—“what is done in love is done well”—connects ethical feeling to quality: work shaped by genuine concern becomes more attentive, more truthful, and more enduring. Read as an artistic credo, the quote implies that technique alone is insufficient; the deepest strength behind meaningful creation is an expansive, practiced love for the world one is trying to depict or serve.