Anton Chekhov Quotes
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I think that it would be less difficult to live eternally than to be deprived of sleep throughout life.
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Do you remember you shot a seagull? A man came by chance, saw it and destroyed it, just to pass the time.
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By poeticizing love, we imagine in those we love virtues that they often do not possess; this then becomes the source of constant mistakes and constant distress.
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After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, 'Oh! Life is so hard!' and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.
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Whoever sincerely believes that elevated and distant goals are as little use to man as a cow, that 'all of our problems' come from such goals, is left to eat, drink, sleep, or, when he gets sick of that, to run up to a chest and smash his forehead on its corner.
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Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant.
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The sea has neither meaning nor pity.
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Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like.
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Can words such as Orthodox, Jew, or Catholic really express some sort of exclusive personal virtues or merits?
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Our self-esteem and conceit are European, but our culture and actions are Asiatic.
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It’s worth living abroad to study up on genteel and delicate manners. The maid smiles continuously; she smiles like a duchess on a stage, while at the same time it is clear from her face that she is exhausted from overwork.
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Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.
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If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.'
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There are no small number of people in this world who, solitary by nature, always try to go back into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.
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We live not in order to eat, but in order not to know what we feel like eating.
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Satiation, like any state of vitality, always contains a degree of impudence, and that impudence emerges first and foremost when the sated man instructs the hungry one.
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If there's any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.
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Instructing in cures, therapists always recommend that 'each case be individualized.' If this advice is followed, one becomes persuaded that those means recommended in textbooks as the best, means perfectly appropriate for the template case, turn out to be completely unsuitable in individual cases.
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My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom imaginable, freedom from violence and lies, no matter what form the latter two take. Such is the program I would adhere to if I were a major artist.
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We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.
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In countries where there is a mild climate, less effort is expended on the struggle with nature and man is kinder and more gentle.
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Once you’ve married, be strict but just with your wife, don’t allow her to forget herself, and when a misunderstanding arises, say: 'Don’t forget that I made you happy.'
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Without a knowledge of languages you feel as if you don’t have a passport.
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Narrative prose is a legal wife, while drama is a posturing, boisterous, cheeky and wearisome mistress.