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Anton Chekhov Quotes - Page 12

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In my head there is a whole army of people asking to be let out and waiting for the word of command.

In my head there is a whole army of people asking to be let out and waiting for the word of command.

Army, People, Literature

"Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where the soul is.

Death, Medicine, Soul

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, May 7, 1889.

To dine, drink champagne, raise a racket and make speeches about the people's consciousness, the people's conscience, freedom andso forth while servants in tails are scurrying around your table, just like serfs, and out in the severe cold on the street await coachmen--this is the same as lying to the holy spirit.

Lying, People, Hypocrisy

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.

Years, Justice, Welcome

"The Cherry Orchard". Play by Anton Chekhov, 1904.

Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.

Art, Miscarriage, Grumbling

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, December 27, 1889.

But if you had asked him what his work was, he would look candidly and openly at you with his large bright eyes through his gold pincenez, and would answer in a soft, velvety, lisping baritone: "My work is literature."

Work, Eye, Gold

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.1438, Delphi Classics

Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is.

Ideas, Honor, Standards

Anton Chekhov's letter to A.N. Pleshcheev, April 9, 1889.

In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture. For instance, you'll have a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled past like a ball.

Dog, Stars, Eye

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1987). “The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings”

I should like to meet a philosopher like Nietzsche somewhere in a train or a steamer, and to spend the whole night talking to him. I consider his philosophy won't last long, however. It's more showy than convincing.

Wisdom, Philosophy, Night

"Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

While you're playing cards with a regular guy or having a bite to eat with him, he seems a peaceable, good-humoured and not entirely dense person. But just begin a conversation with him about something inedible, politics or science, for instance, and he ends up in a deadend or starts in on such an obtuse and base philosophy that you can only wave your hand and leave.

Philosophy, Hands, Guy

"Ionych". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1898.

It seems to me that all of the evil in life comes from idleness, boredom, and psychic emptiness, but all of that is inevitable when you become accustomed to living at others' expense.

Psychics, Boredom, Evil

"My Life". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1896.

In Moscow you sit in a huge room at a restaurant; you know no one and no one knows you, and at the same time you don't feel a stranger. But here you know everyone and everyone knows you, and yet you are a stranger - a stranger... A stranger, and lonely...

Lonely, Moscow, Rooms

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1930). “The plays of Anton Tchekov: pref. by Eva Le Gallienne”

If there's a gun on the wall in act one, scene one, you must fire the gun by act three, scene two. If you fire a gun in act three, scene two, you must see the gun on the wall in act one, scene one.

Wall, Book, Gun

Nature's law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packaged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man.

Nature, Strong, Fall

"A Doctor's Visit". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1898.

It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.

Death, Depressing, Men

"On the Road". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1886.

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.

Success, Mistake, Failure

Anton Chekhov (2015). “The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary: Three Sisters, Seagull , The Shooting Party, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, Chameleon, Tripping Tongue, On The Road, Vanka, Ward No. Six, Swedish Match, Nightmare, Bear, Reluctant Hero, Joy…”, p.3463, e-artnow

Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.

History, Battle, Conflict

Useless pursuits and conversations always about the same things absorb the better part of one's time, the better part of one's strength, and in the end there is left a life grovelling and curtailed, worthless and trivial, and there is no escaping or getting away from it—just as though one were in a madhouse or prison.

Escaping, Useless, Prison

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.2939, Delphi Classics

One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they'll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.

Technology, Two, People

"Lights". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1888.

The leaves did not stir on the trees, grasshoppers chirruped, and the monotonous hollow sound of the sea rising up from below, spoke of the peace, of the eternal sleep awaiting us. So it must have sounded when there was no Yalta, no Oreanda here; so it sounds now, and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more. And in this constancy, in this complete indifference to the life and death of each of us, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, of unceasing progress towards perfection.

Lying, Sleep, Sea

"The Lady with the Dog". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1899.

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.

Men, Vitality, Degrees

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, October 20, 1891.

Critics are like horse-flies which hinder the horses in their plowing of the soil. The horse works, all its muscles drawn tight like the strings on a double-bass, and a fly settles on his flanks and tickles and buzzes. And what does the fly buzz about? It scarcely knows itself; simply because it is restless and wants to proclaim: 'Look, I too am living on the earth. See, I can buzz, too, buzz about anything.'

Horse, Double Bass, Doe

It doesn't matter that your painting is small. Kopecks are also small, but when a lot are put together they make a ruble. Each painting displayed in a gallery and each good book that makes it into a library, no matter how small they may be, serve a great cause: accretion of the national wealth.

Book, Together, Library

Letter to S.P. Kuvshinnikova, December 25, 1888.

I don't like being successful; the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.

Success, Ideas, Annoyed

"Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

If one wants to lead a good life, A HUMAN LIFE, one must work.

Good Life, Want, Human Life

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