Famous Quotes by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
- By poeticizing love, we imagine in those we love virtues that they often do not possess; this... More
- Once you’ve married, be strict but just with your wife, don’t allow her to forget herself,... More
- The sea has neither meaning nor pity. More
- All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think... More
- Exquisite nature, daydreams, and music say one thing, real life another. More
- If you really think about it, everything is wonderful in this world, everything except for our... More
- A fiancé is neither this nor that: he’s left one shore, but not yet reached the other. More
- It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest. More
- The unhappy are egotistical, base, unjust, cruel, and even less capable of understanding one... More
- Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love... More
- Eyes—the head’s chief of police. They watch and make mental notes. A blind person is like a... More
- The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that which it can’t return... More
- Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts. More
- Those who come a hundred or two hundred years after us will despise us for having lived our lives... More
- A woman can only become a man’s friend in three stages: first, she’s an agreeable... More
- Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals... More
- One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology... More
- What if something were to come of it? More
- Tell mother that however dogs and samovars might behave themselves, winter comes after summer,... More
- Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds. More
- Prudence and justice tell me that in electricity and steam there is more love for man than in... More
- When we retreat to the country, we are hiding not from people, but from our pride, which, in the... More
- One had better not rush, otherwise dung comes out rather than creative work. More
- Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict... More
- I would love to meet a philosopher like Nietzsche on a train or boat and to talk with him all... More
- Better to die at the hands of fools than to accept praise from them. More
- When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where... More
- He who constantly swims in the ocean loves dry land. More
- Solomon made a big mistake when he asked for wisdom. More
- What a delight it is to respect people! More
- We old bachelors smell like dogs, do we? So be it. But I must take issue with your claim that... More
- An expansive life, one not constrained by four walls, requires as well an expansive pocket. More
- Life is difficult for those who have the daring to first set out on an unknown road. The... More
- Can words such as Orthodox, Jew, or Catholic really express some sort of exclusive personal... More
- Pharisaism, obtuseness and tyranny reign not only in the homes of merchants and in jails; I see... More
- Love is a great thing. It is not by chance that in all times and practically among all cultured... More
- He who doesn’t know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master; the interests... More
- Happiness does not await us all. One needn’t be a prophet to say that there will be more grief... More
- An enormously vast field lies between “God exists” and “there is no God.” The truly wise... More
- Literature is my legal wife and medicine my mistress. When I get tired of one, I spend the night... More
- You ask “What is life?” That is the same as asking “What is a carrot?” A carrot is a... More
- Children are holy and pure. Even those of bandits and crocodiles belong among the angels.... They... More
- I have in my head a whole army of people pleading to be let out and awaiting my commands. More
- I’ve noticed that people who get married cease to be curious. More
- How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out. More
- I don’t know why one can’t chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of... More
- There are in life such confluences of circumstances that render the reproach that we are not... More
- Sports are positively essential. It is healthy to engage in sports, they are beautiful and... More
- There are people whom even children’s literature would corrupt. They read with particular... More
- Despicable means used to achieve laudable goals renders the goals themselves despicable. More
- Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What... More
- There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined. More
- When you’re thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean—that’s faith; when... More
- When you live on cash, you understand the limits of the world around which you navigate each day.... More
- People understand God as the expression of the most lofty morality. Maybe He needs only perfect... More
- The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state... More
- My mother and father are the only people on the whole planet for whom I will never begrudge a... More
- Common hypocrites pass themselves off as doves; political and literary hypocrites pose as eagles.... More
- It’s easier to ask for money from the poor than from the wealthy. More
- Everything is good in due measure and strong sensations know not measure. More
- I’ve thought about how, were we to suddenly receive the freedom about which we talk so much... More
- It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook. More
- I don’t care for success. The ideas sitting in my head are annoyed by, and envious of, that... More
- Despite your best efforts, you could not invent a better police force for literature than... More
- It doesn’t matter that your painting is small. Kopecks are also small, but when a lot are put... More
- The desire to serve the common good must without fail be a requisite of the soul, a necessity for... More
- Just as I shall lie alone in the grave, so, in essence, do I live alone. More
- When an actor has money, he sends not letters, but telegrams. More
- Our pride and self-importance are European, while our development and actions are Asiatic. More
- Writers are as jealous as pigeons. More
- I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, will not appear... More
- A person loves to talk about his illnesses although that is the least interesting part of his life. More
- It’s worth living abroad to study up on genteel and delicate manners. The maid smiles... More
- In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is... More
- Tsars and slaves, the intelligent and the obtuse, publicans and pharisees all have an identical... More
- It always seems to the brothers and the father that their brother or son didn’t marry the right... More
- Hypocrisy is a revolting, psychopathic state. More
- In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in... More
- I can’t accept “our nervous age,” since mankind has been nervous during every age. Whoever... More
- Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly... More
- A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t... More
- Even while lying, you’ll be believed if you speak with authority. More
- Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have... More
- A good person will feel guilty even before a dog. More
- When a person expends the least amount of motion on one action, that is grace. More
- Everyone judges plays as if they were very easy to write. They don’t know that it is hard to... More
- It is a poor thing for the writer to take on that which he doesn’t understand. More
- When a person doesn’t understand something, he feels internal discord: however he doesn’t... More
- There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; anything that is... More
- Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at... More
- Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity,... More
- I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a... More
- A man who doesn’t drink is not, in my opinion, fully a man. More
- The person who wants nothing, hopes for nothing, and fears nothing can never be an artist. More
- If you fear loneliness, then don’t get married. More
- For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were... More
- There is nothing more vapid than a philistine petty bourgeois existence with its farthings,... More
- To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier... More
- Lermontov died at age twenty-eight and wrote more than have you and I put together. Talent is... More
- In one-act pieces there should be only rubbish—that is their strength. More
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