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Anton Chekhov Quotes - Page 14

All Quotes Age Art Boredom Capital Punishment Character Children Conscience Country Criticism Death Desire Dying Earth Failing Faith Feelings Freedom Funny Giving Grief Happiness Happy Hatred Heart Home Human Nature Hypocrisy Illness Inspiration Inspirational Judging Justice Language Life Literature Loneliness Love Lying Marriage Money Moon Motivational Nature Pain Past Philosophy Police Progress Psychology Purpose Reality Respect Running Science Silence Sin Sleep Soul Students Success Suffering Summer Talent Theatre Time Today Understanding Virtue Wall Wife Winter Wisdom Work Writing Youth

It is as acceptable now to love the wives of others as it is to smoke their cigars and read their books.

It is as acceptable now to love the wives of others as it is to smoke their cigars and read their books.

Book, Wife, Cigar

Eyes - the head's chief of police. They watch and make mental notes.

Eye, Police, Watches

"A Brief Human Anatomy". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1883.

And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.

Wise, Book, Blessing

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.2020, Delphi Classics

In descriptions of nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture.

Writing, Eye, Details

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

I feel more confident and more satisfied when I reflect that I have two professions and not one. Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress. When I get tired of one I spend the night with the other. Though it's disorderly it's not so dull, and besides, neither really loses anything, through my infidelity.

Tired, Night, Two

Letter to A. S. Suvorin, 11 Sept. 1888

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

Sea, Pity

"Gusev". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1890.

When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights; but if one looks into the soul -- it's nothing but a common crocodile.

Women, Sea, Soul

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.227, e-artnow

I am writing a play which I probably will not finish until the end of November. I am writing it with considerable pleasure, though I sin frightfully against the conventions of the stage. It is a comedy with three female parts, six male, four acts, a landscape (view of the lake), lots of talk on literature, little action and tons of love.

Love, Writing, Lakes

People understand God as the expression of the most lofty morality. Maybe He needs only perfect people.

Expression, People, Perfect

Anton Chekhov's letter to E.M. Shavrova, April 6, 1892.

In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness.... The expanses are so great that the little man hasn't the resources to orient himself.... This is what I think about Russian suicides.

Suicide, Men, Thinking

Letter to D. V. Grigorovich, February 5, 1888.

Death can only be profitable: there's no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.

Lying, Years, People

"Rothschild's Violin". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1894.

To believe in God is not hard. Inquisitors, Byron and Arakcheev believed in Him. No, believe in man!

God, Faith, Believe

Advertising is the very essence of democracy.

Essence, Democracy, Transcendentalism

Art, especially the stage, is an area where it is impossible to walk without stumbling.

Art, Impossible, Stage

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1973). “Letters of Anton Chekhov”, Viking Adult

A litterateur is not a confectioner, not a dealer in cosmetics, not an entertainer. . . . He is just like an ordinary reporter. What would you say if a newspaper reporter, because of his fastidiousness or from a wish to give pleasure to his readers, were to describe only honest mayors, high-minded ladies, and virtuous railroad contractors.

Honesty, Giving, Justice

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

Powerful, Philosophy, Grief

"A Dreadful Night". Short story by Anton Chekhov, November 3, 1886.

Anyone who says the artist's field is all answers and no questions has never done any writing or had any dealings with imageryYou are confusing two concepts: answering the questions and formulating them correctly. Only the latter is required of an author.

Writing, Artist, Two

"Comfort reading: Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov" by Chris Power, www.theguardian.com. December 11, 2003.

Flies purify the air, and plays - the morals.

Air, Play, Moral

I can't accept "our nervous age," since mankind has been nervous during every age. Whoever fears nervousness should turn into a sturgeon or smelt; if a sturgeon makes a stupid mistake, it can only be one: to end up on a hook, and then in a pan in a pastry shell.

Stupid, Mistake, Age

Letter to E. M. Savrova-Yust, February 28, 1895.

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.

Maids, Faces, Exhausted

Letter to I.P. Chekhov, October 2, 1897.

Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are laid waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.

Creativity, Men, Animal

"Uncle Vanya". Act I. Play by Anton Chekhov, 1897.

When a person hasn't in him that which is higher and stronger than all external influences, it is enough for him to catch a good cold in order to lose his equilibrium and begin to see an owl in every bird, to hear a dog's bark in every sound.

Dog, Order, Bird

"A Dreary Story". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1889.

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.

Years, People, Lapses

"A Journey to Sakhalin". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1895.

Great Jove angry is no longer Jove.

Angry

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1978). “Best Plays”, Random House Inc

I have no will of my own. Never did. Limp and lily-livered, I always obey - is it possible that's attractive to women?

Lilies, Attractive, My Own

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