Anton chekhov quotes

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.

This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.

There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you're angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you're asked.

Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.

Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

Calculating selfishness is the annihilation of self.

We are accustomed to live in hopes of good weather, a good harvest, a nice love-affair, hopes of becoming rich or getting the office of chief of police, but I've never noticed anyone hoping to get wiser. We say to ourselves: it'll be better under a new tsar, and in two hundred years it'll still be better, and nobody tries to make this good time come tomorrow. On the whole, life gets more and more complex every day and moves on its own sweet will, and people get more and more stupid, and get isolated from life in ever-increasing numbers.

A man who doesn't drink is not, in my opinion, fully a man.

Even while lying, you'll be believed if you speak with authority.

A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.

If our life has a meaning, an aim, it has nothing to do with our personal happiness, but something wiser and greater.

All saints have past and all sinners have a future.

Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

My mother and father are the only people on the whole planet for whom I will never begrudge a thing. Should I achieve great things, it is the work of their hands; they are splendid people and their absolute love of their children places them above the highest praise. It cloaks all of their shortcomings, shortcomings that may have resulted from a difficult life.

I can only regard with bewilderment an educated man who is also religious

If I wanted to order a ring for myself, the inscription I should choose would be: "Nothing passes away." I believe that nothing passes away without leaving a trace, and that every step we take, however small, has significance for our present and our future existence.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?

If ever my life can be of any use to you, come and claim it.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.

Common hypocrites pass themselves off as doves; political and literary hypocrites pose as eagles. But don't be fooled by their eagle-like appearance. These are not eagles, but rats or dogs.

You will not become a saint through other people's sins.

Just as I shall lie alone in the grave, so, in essence, do I live alone.

When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life.

Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.

The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex. One should seekthe simple solution.

It is easy to be a philosopher in academia, but it is very difficult to be a philosopher in life.

When a person is born, he can embark on only one of three roads of life: if you go right, the wolves will eat you; if you go left, you’ll eat the wolves; if you go straight, you’ll eat yourself.

You confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for an artist.

The teacher must be an actor, an artist,passionately in love with his work.

It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees - this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.

If in the first act you introduce a gun, by the third act you have to use it.

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.

To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God.

Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.

My love is like a stone tied round my neck; it's dragging me down to the bottom; but I love my stone. I can't live without it.

Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

Man will become better when you show him what he is like.

I promise to be a splendid husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, won't in my sky every day...

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Art, especially the stage, is an area where it is impossible to walk without stumbling. There are in store for you many unsuccessful days and whole unsuccessful seasons: there will be great misunderstandings and deep disappointments… you must be prepared for all this, expect it and nevertheless, stubbornly, fanatically follow your own way.

A good person will feel guilty even before a dog.

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.

The unhappy are egotistical, base, unjust, cruel, and even less capable of understanding one another than are idiots. Unhappinessdoes not unite people, but separates them.

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.

For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch.

Wisdom.... comes not from age, but from education and learning.

Brevity - the sister of talent.

I have the feeling that I've seen everything, but failed to notice the elephants.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

[Six principles that make for a good story:] 1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality: flee the stereotype; 6. compassion.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

When all is said and done, no literature can outdo the cynicism of real life; you won't intoxicate with one glass someone who has already drunk up a whole barrel.

An artist observes, selects, guesses, and synthesizes.

I think human beings must have faith or must look for faith, otherwise our life is empty, empty. To live and not to know why the cranes fly, why children are born, why there are stars in the sky. You must know why you are alive, or else everything is nonsense, just blowing in the wind.

When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader will see an image in his mind after he closes his eyes. For instance: you will capture the truth of a moonlit night if you'll write that a gleam like starlight shone from the pieces of a broken bottle, and then the dark, plump shadow of a dog or wolf appeared. You will bring life to nature only if you don't shrink from similes that liken its activities to those of humankind.

There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments , but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.

Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.

The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.

It's not a matter of old or new forms; a person writes without thinking about any forms, he writes because it flows freely from his soul.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.

People should be beautiful in every way - in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts, and in their innermost selves.

If you wish women to love you be original; I know a man who used to wear felt boots summer and winter & women fell in love with him.

Time will pass, and we shall go away for ever, and we shall be forgotten, our faces will be forgotten, our voices, and how many there were of us; but our sufferings will pass into joy for those who will live after us, happiness and peace will be established upon earth, and they will remember kindly and bless those who have lived before.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

I expect I shall be a student to the end of my days.

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

The snow has not yet left the earth but spring is already asking to enter your heart.

Women can't forgive failure.

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.

The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible.

Better to perish from fools than to accept praises from them.

You ask me what life is. That's like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there's nothing more to know.

What seems to us serious, significant and important will, in future times, be forgotten or won't seem important at all.

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.

The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that which it can't return even if it wants to.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as common hatred for something.

In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.

There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

Life is given only once, and one wants to live it boldly, with full conscious and beauty.

The more cultured a man, the less fortunate he is.

A hungry dog believes in nothing but meat.

At the door of every happy person there should be a man with a hammer whose knock would serve as a constant reminder of the existence of unfortunate people.

A man and a woman marry because both of them do not know what to do with themselves.

People's destinies are so different. Some people drag along, unnoticed and boring—they're all alike, and they're all unhappy. Then there are others, like for instance you—you're one in a million. You're happy—

If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

Life has gone by as if I never lived

The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

Only entropy comes easy.

When a person expends the least amount of motion on one action, that is grace.

It's easier to ask for money from the poor than from the wealthy.

Love, respect, and friendship do unite a people as well as a common hatred does.

Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.

He who doesn't know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master; the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable to enjoy others' successes, and such a person should never be entrusted with public affairs.

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

Try to be original in your play and as clever as possible; but don't be afraid to show yourself foolish; we must have freedom of thinking, and only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

There is nothing more vulgar than a petty bourgeois life with its halfpence, its victuals, its futile talk, and its useless conventional virtue.

It's very hard, feeling that you're no more than a piece of unwanted furniture in this world.

Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

Everyone has the same God; only people differ.

In short stories it is better to say not enough than to say too much, because, because--I don't know why.

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

Anna Petrovna: Never talk to women about your own good qualities. Let them find out for themselves.

Without a knowledge of languages you feel as if you don't have a passport.

The bourgeoisie is very fond of so-called practical types and novels with happy endings, since they soothe it with the idea that one can both accumulate capital and preserve innocence, be a beast and at the same time be happy...

Try to reason about love, and you will lose your reason.

Exquisite nature, daydreams, and music say one thing, real life another.

Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics.

If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache.... If your wife betrays you, be glad that she betrayed only you and not the nation.

But at the same time, in reality, what a difference there is between the world today, and what it used to be! And with the passage of more time, some two or three hundred years, say, people will look back at our own times with horror, or with sneering laughter, because all of our present day life will appear so clumsy, and burdensome, extraordinarily inept and strange. Yes, certainly, what a life it will be then, what a life!

An actress without talent, forty years old, ate a partridge for dinner, and I felt sorry for the partridge, for it occurred to me that in its life it had been more talented, more sensible, and more honest than the actress.