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'Crutch is coming! Crutch! The old horseradish.'
Anton Chekhov -
He is no longer a city dweller who has even once in his life caught a ruff or seen how, on clear and cool autumn days, flocks of migrating thrushes drift over a village. Until his death he will be drawn to freedom.
Anton Chekhov
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People should be beautiful in every way—in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts and in their innermost selves.
Anton Chekhov -
The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.
Anton Chekhov -
Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.
Anton Chekhov -
We fret ourselves to reform life, in order that posterity may be happy, and posterity will say as usual: 'In the past it used to be better, the present is worse than the past.'
Anton Chekhov -
I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.
Anton Chekhov -
If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It’s better to live somehow than not at all.
Anton Chekhov
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When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole ocean-that is faith; but when one begins to drink, one can only drink altogether two glasses-that is science.
Anton Chekhov -
The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.
Anton Chekhov -
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 -
Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.
Anton Chekhov -
To regard one’s immortality as an exchange of matter is as strange as predicting the future of a violin case once the expensive violin it held has broken and lost its worth.
Anton Chekhov -
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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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.
Anton Chekhov -
Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What amazing workers.
Anton Chekhov -
Dear, sweet, unforgettable childhood! Why does this irrevocable time, forever departed, seem brighter, more festive and richer than it actually was?
Anton Chekhov -
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 -
Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far as blather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.
Anton Chekhov -
A fiancé is neither this nor that: he’s left one shore, but not yet reached the other.
Anton Chekhov
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I don’t know why one can’t chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of those words. If you have the hounds, go ahead and pursue.
Anton Chekhov -
It’s even pleasant to be sick when you know that there are people who await your recovery as they might await a holiday.
Anton Chekhov -
Как легко, доктор, быть философом на бумаге и как это трудно на деле!
Anton Chekhov -
It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.
Anton Chekhov