In 1883 Émile Zola wrote a novel that contained an instance of this saying in French (je préfère crever de passion que de crever d’ennui). In October 1884 Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo that included the quotation as part of a larger excerpt from Zola’s novel. Thus, both well-known figures employed the saying, but Zola was the originator.