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 7

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

All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly

All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: 'Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!'

Long, People, Important

Oh, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.

People, Enough, Working It

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Lying, Writing, Stories

In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.

Character, Russia, Government

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, December 17, 1890.

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured.

Pain, Mean, Modern Life

'The Cherry Orchard' (1904) act 2

I think that it would be less difficult to live eternally than to be deprived of sleep throughout life.

Sleep, Thinking, Would Be

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, December 9, 1890.

But at the same time, in reality, what a difference there is between the world today, and what it used to be! And with the passage of more time, some two or three hundred years, say, people will look back at our own times with horror, or with sneering laughter, because all of our present day life will appear so clumsy, and burdensome, extraordinarily inept and strange. Yes, certainly, what a life it will be then, what a life!

Laughter, Reality, Years

What a delight it is to respect people!

Respect, People, Delight

"Note-Book of Anton Chekhov". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1921.

..when one has no real life, one lives by mirages. It's still better than nothing.

Real, Mirages, Live By

There is something beautiful, touching and poetic when one person loves more than the other, and the other is indifferent.

Beautiful, Touching, Poetic

"After the Theatre". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1892.

A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.

Beautiful, Stars, Water

Letter to A. S. Suvorin, October 18, 1888.

One must speak about serious things seriously.

Ideas, Serious Things, Serious

Anton Chekhov's letter to A.N. Pleshcheev, September 9, 1888.

The aim of fiction is absolute and honest truth.

Fiction, Honest, Aim

The air of one's native country is the most healthy air.

Country, Air, Healthy

Letter to his brother, G.M. Chekhov, January 1895.

Formerly, when I would feel a desire to understand someone, or myself, I would take into consideration not actions, in which everything is relative, but wishes. Tell me what you want and I'll tell you who you are.

Wish, Desire, Want

The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.

Literature, Incapability, University

You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.

Horse, Lying, Taken

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

[In] death at least there would be one profit; it would no longer be necessary to eat, to drink, to pay taxes, or to [offend] others; and as a man lies in his grave not one year, but hundreds and thousands of years, the profit was enormous. The life of man was, in short, a loss, and only his death a profit.

Death, Lying, Loss

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1929). “The Works of 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.

Broken, Matter, Violin

"Ward No. 6". Short stories by Anton Chekhov, 1892.

To advise is not to compel.

Advise

Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one's dignity.

People, May, Dignity

Letter to his brother, M. P. Chekhov, April 1879.

Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would be like that with me. That if I died I would still be part of life in one way or another.

Thinking, Wind, Tree

In order to cultivate yourself and to drop no lower than the level of the milieu in which you have landed, it is not enough to read Pickwick and memorize a monologue from Faust... You need to work continually day and night, to read ceaselessly, to study, to exercise your will... Each hour is precious.

Exercise, Night, Order

Anton Chekhov's letter to his brother N.P. Chekhov, March 1886.

After us they'll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they'll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, "Oh! Life is so hard!" and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.

Men, Air Balloons, Years

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

Not only after two or three centuries, but in a million years, life will still be as it was; life does not change, it remains for ever, following its own laws which do not concern us, or which, at any rate, you will never find out. Migrant birds, cranes for example, fly and fly, and whatever thoughts, high or low, enter their heads, they will still fly and not know why or where. They fly and will continue to fly, whatever philosophers come to life among them; they may philosophize as much as they like, only they will fly.

Years, Law, Two

Anton Chekhov (2012). “The Three Sisters”, p.23, Courier Corporation

You May Also Like: