Anton Chekhov Quotes
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I have in my head a whole army of people pleading to be let out and awaiting my commands.
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Narrative prose is a legal wife, while drama is a posturing, boisterous, cheeky and wearisome mistress.
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In one-act pieces there should be only rubbish-that is their strength.
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People love talking of their diseases, although they are the most uninteresting things in their lives.
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There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.
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You are right to demand that an artist engage his work consciously, but you confuse two different things: solving the problem and correctly posing the question.
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Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.
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They say: 'In the long run truth will triumph;' but it is untrue.
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There is no Monday which will not give its place to Tuesday.
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A grimy fly can soil the entire wall and a small, dirty little act can ruin the entire proceedings.
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I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a word be put in about my book.... One feels cleaner this way. When someone asks that his book be reviewed he risks running up against a vulgarity offensive to authorial sensibilities.
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Between 'there is a God' and 'there is no God' lies a whole vast tract, which the really wise man crosses with great effort. A Russian knows one or other of these two extremes, and the middle tract between them does not interest him; and therefore he usually knows nothing, or very little. (Diary, 1897)
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Better to perish from fools than to accept praises from them.
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It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.
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I try to catch every sentence, every word you and I say, and quickly lock all these sentences and words away in my literary storehouse because they might come in handy.
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I was so drunk the whole time that I took bottles for girls and girls for bottles.
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Hypocrisy is a revolting, psychopathic state.
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Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.
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If you can’t distinguish people from lap-dogs, you shouldn’t undertake philanthropic work.
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No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith.
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To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
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Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.
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When in a serious mood, it seems to me that those people are illogical who feel an aversion toward death. As far as I can see, life consists exclusively of horrors, unpleasantnesses and banalities, now merging, now alternating.
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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.