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A nice man would feel ashamed even before a dog.
Anton Chekhov
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Dear and most respected bookcase! I welcome your existence, which has for over one hundred years been devoted to the radiant ideals of goodness and justice.
Anton Chekhov
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Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What amazing workers.
Anton Chekhov
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All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.
Anton Chekhov
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Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.
Anton Chekhov
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When an actor has money, he doesn't send letters but telegrams.
Anton Chekhov
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Everyone has the same God; only people differ.
Anton Chekhov
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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.
Anton Chekhov
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Несчастные эгоистичны, злы, несправедливы, жестоки и менее, чем глупцы, способны понимать друг друга. Не соединяет, а разъединяет людей несчастье...
Anton Chekhov
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It is not only the prisoners who grow coarse and hardened from corporeal punishment, but those as well who perpetrate the act or are present to witness it.
Anton Chekhov
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There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.
Anton Chekhov
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If you can’t distinguish people from lap-dogs, you shouldn’t undertake philanthropic work.
Anton Chekhov
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I divide all literary works into two categories: Those I like and those I don’t like. No other criterion exists for me.
Anton Chekhov
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They say: 'In the long run truth will triumph;' but it is untrue.
Anton Chekhov
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'Grigory Petrovitch, let us weep, let us weep with joy!' he said in a thin voice, and then at once burst out laughing in a loud bass guffaw. 'Ho-ho-ho! This is a fine daughter-in-law for you too! Everything is in its place in her; all runs smoothly, no creaking, the mechanism works well, lots of screws in it.'
Anton Chekhov
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Exquisite nature, daydreams, and music say one thing, real life another.
Anton Chekhov
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To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
Anton Chekhov
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I don’t care for success. The ideas sitting in my head are annoyed by, and envious of, that which I’ve already written.
Anton Chekhov
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An artist must pass judgment only on what he understands; his range is limited as that of any other specialist—that's what I keep repeating and insisting upon. Anyone who says that the artist's field is all answers and no questions has never done any writing or had any dealings with imagery. An artist observes, selects, guesses and synthesizes.
Anton Chekhov
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Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy that which he cannot make?
Anton Chekhov
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Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.
Anton Chekhov
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Happiness does not await us all. One needn’t be a prophet to say that there will be more grief and pain than serenity and money. That is why we must hang on to one another.
Anton Chekhov
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There is something beautiful, touching and poetic when one person loves more than the other, and the other is indifferent.
Anton Chekhov
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I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.
Anton Chekhov
