A Deep, Practical Philosophy

We read in Irving Stone's Lust for Life that when Vincent Van Gogh first viewed Anton Mauve's painting of horses pulling a fishing boat onto a beach "he knew he was looking at a masterpiece"--one from which he drew "a deep, practical philosophy."

To know suffering without complaint, that is the only practical thing, the grand science, the lesson to be learned, the solution to the problem of life.

(My translation from the French, p. 168).