Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Anton Chekhov Quotes - Page 16

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

I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.

I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.

Regret, Artist, Given

Anton Chekhov (2008). “How to Write Like Chekhov: Advice and Inspiration, Straight from His Own Letters and Work”, p.26, Da Capo Press

The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected.

Men, Civilization, Privacy

Anton Chekhov (2010). “Five Plays”, p.5, Stanford University Press

I am now and have always been a stranger to the realm of practical matters.

Ignorance, Matter, Stranger

Anton Chekhov (2003). “Chekhov: The Essential Plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters & The Cherry Orchard”, p.107, Modern Library

A naive man is nothing better than a fool. But you women contrive to be naive in such a way that in you it seems sweet, and gentle, and proper, and not as silly as it really is.

Sweet, Silly, Men

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.270, Delphi Classics

Everything is good in due measure and strong sensations know not measure.

Strong, Knows, Dues

Anton Chekhov's letter to N.M. Lintvareva, February 11, 1889.

There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

Science, Tables, Mathematics

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.3760, Delphi Classics

"Do you know," Ivan Bunin recalls Anton Chekhov saying to him in 1899, near the end of his too-short life, "for how many years I shall be read? Seven." "Why seven?" Bunin asked. "Well," Chekhov answered, "seven and a half then."

Life, Years, Half

To Moscow, to Moscow, to Moscow!

Moscow

"The Three Sisters". Play by Anton Chekhov, Act II, 1901.

The more simply we look at ticklish questions, the more placid will be our lives and relationships.

Looks, Ticklish, Placid

Letter to his brother, A.P. Chekhov, September 24, 1888.

One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.

Thinking, Rifles, Stage

Letter to A. S. Lazarev, 1 Nov. 1889.

There are people whom even children's literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in the Wisdom of Solomon.

Children, People, Literature

Letter to M.V. Kiseleva, January 14, 1887.

Those who come a hundred or two hundred years after us will despise us for having lived our lives so stupidly and tastelessly. Perhaps they'll find a means to be happy.

Happiness, Happy, Mean

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

Never bring a cannon on stage in Act I unless you intend to fire it by the last act.

Fire, Lasts, Stage

The people I am afraid of are the ones who look for tendentiousness between the lines and are determined to see me as either liberal or conservative. I am neither liberal, nor conservative, nor gradualist, nor monk, nor indifferentist. I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.

Regret, Artist, People

Anton Chekhov (2009). “Selected Stories of Anton Chekov”, p.12, Modern Library

If you cry ''Forward'' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely opposite directions?

Funny, Failure, Communication

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.

Wife, Today, Speak

"On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco". Play by Anton Chekhov, 1886.

We live not in order to eat, but in order not to know what we feel like eating.

Order, Eating, Feels

"The Fruits of Long Meditations". Short Story by Anton Chekhov, 1884.

It is always "Youth, youth," when there is nothing else to be said.

Youth, Said

Anton Chekhov (2012). “Ten Plays”, p.137, Courier Corporation

[Ognev] recalled endless, heated, purely Russian arguments, when the wranglers, spraying spittle and banging their fists on the table, fail to understand yet interrupt one another, themselves not even noticing it, contradict themselves with every phrase, change the subject, then, having argued for two or three hours, begin to laugh.

Two, Laughing, Wranglers

"Verotchka". Book by Anton Chekhov, February 21, 1887.

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.

Faith, Ocean, Science

Anton Chekhov (2015). “The Life and Genius of Anton Chekhov: Letters, Diary, Reminiscences and Biography: Assorted Collection of Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned Russian Author and Playwright of Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters and The Seagull”, p.379, e-artnow

I'm in mourning for my life.

Mourning

The Seagull act 1 (1896)

In one-act pieces there should be only rubbish - that is their strength.

Pieces, Rubbish, Should

Letter to A. S. Suvorin, January 6, 1889.

A man wants nothing so badly as a gooseberry farm.

Food, Men, Cooking

And it is the way with us that you may express disapproval of the sun or the moon, or anything you like, but God preserve you from touching the Liberals! Heaven forbid!

Moon, Heaven, Touching

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.1963, Delphi Classics

Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at all.

Creative, Criticism, Negative

Anton Chekhov's letter to his brother A.P. Chekhov, May 10, 1886.

You May Also Like: