Quote of the Day

“Normality is a paved road. It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.”

• Vincent van Gogh

In January 1879, Vincent took up a post as a missionary at Petit-Wasmes in the working class, coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. To show support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a homeless person and moved to a small hut, where he slept on straw. His humble living conditions did not endear him to church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood".