Top 25 Quotes by Anton Chekhov of 433 - Page 8

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 . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not

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 . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not concerned with the subject. If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.

Anton Chekhov

Wall, Lying, Gun

Life is a vexatious trap; when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no escape.

Anton Chekhov

Thinking, Maturity, Men

Anton Chekhov (2015). “Anton Chekhov: The Collected Novellas and Short Stories in Multiple Translations: Over 200 Stories From the Renowned Russian Playwright and Author of Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard and The Three Sisters in Multiple Translations including Ward No. 6 , The Lady with the Dog and Others”, p.1929, e-artnow

The unhappy are egoistic, spiteful, unjust, cruel, and less capable of understanding each other than fools. Unhappiness does not bring people together but draws them apart, and even where one would fancy people should be united by the similarity of their sorrow, far more injustice and cruelty is generated than in comparatively placid surroundings.

Anton Chekhov

People, Understanding, Sorrow

Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.1507, Delphi Classics

There is nothing new in art except talent.

Anton Chekhov

Art, Genius, Literature

In a century or two, or in a millennium, people will live in a new way, a happier way. We won"t be there to see it - but it"s why we live, why we work. It"s why we suffer. We"re creating it. That"s the purpose of our existence. The only happiness we can know is to work toward that goal.

Anton Chekhov

Two, Creating, People

Man is what he believes.

Anton Chekhov

Inspirational, Motivational, Believe

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.377, e-artnow

An expansive life, one not constrained by four walls, requires as well an expansive pocket.

Anton Chekhov

Wall, Four, Pockets

Letter to A. S. Suvorin, March 11, 1892.

I should think I'm going to be a perpetual student.

Anton Chekhov

Thinking, Students, Should

Anton Chekhov (2016). “The Cherry Orchard: A Comedy in Four Acts”, p.17, Bloomsbury Publishing

Write only of what is important and eternal.

Anton Chekhov

Writing, Important, Eternal

Anton Chekhov (2006). “The Major Plays”, p.111, Penguin

I confess I seldom commune with my conscience when I write.

Anton Chekhov

Writing, Communes, Conscience

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.3428, e-artnow

And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life.

Anton Chekhov

Firsts, Gray, First Time

One had better not rush, otherwise dung comes out rather than creative work.

Anton Chekhov

Creative, Creative Work

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, August 18, 1891.

Desription should be very brief and have an incidental nature.

Anton Chekhov

Should

My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.

Anton Chekhov

Business, Thinking, Artist

I am not a liberal, not a conservative, not a believer in gradual progress, not a monk. I should like to be a free artist and nothing more.

Anton Chekhov

Freedom, Artist, Progress

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.99, e-artnow

I have no faith in our hypocritical, false, hysterical, uneducated and lazy intelligentsia when they suffer and complain: their oppression comes from within. I believe in individual people. I see salvation in discrete individuals, intellectuals and peasants, strewn hither and yon throughout Russia. They have the strength, although there are few of them.

Anton Chekhov

Integrity, Believe, Russia

Letter to I.I. Orlov, February 22, 1899.

What truth? You see where truth is, and where untruth is, but I seem to have lost my sight and see nothing. You boldly settle all important questions, but tell me, dear, isn't it because you're young, because you haven't had time to suffer till you settled a single one of your questions? You boldly look forward, isn't it because you cannot foresee or expect anything terrible, because so far life has been hidden from your young eyes? You are bolder, more honest, deeper than we are, but think only, be just a little magnanimous, and have mercy on me.

Anton Chekhov

Eye, Thinking, Sight

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.454, e-artnow

Let the things that happen on the stage be just as complex and yet just as simple as they are in life. For instance, people are having a meal, just having a meal, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being smashed up.

Anton Chekhov

Simple, People, Meals

Anton Chekhov (2007). “Chekhov Plays”, p.27, Wordsworth Editions

My mistress has come home; at last I've seen her. Now I'm ready to die.

Anton Chekhov

Home, Mistress, Lasts

Anton Chekhov (2012). “The Cherry Orchard”, p.14, Courier Corporation

When you live on cash, you understand the limits of the world around which you navigate each day. Credit leads into a desert with invisible boundaries.

Anton Chekhov

Each Day, World, Cash

Letter to A.S. Suvorin, August 18, 1893.

Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and when he dies the five senses that we know perish with him, and the other ninety-five remain alive... Everything that is unattainable for us now will one day be near and clear... But we must work.

Anton Chekhov

Men, One Day, Five Senses

Anton Chekhov (2012). “The Cherry Orchard”, p.24, Courier Corporation

In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!

Anton Chekhov

Character, Psychology, Essentials

My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom--freedom from violence and falsehood, no matter how the last two manifest themselves.

Anton Chekhov

Inspiration, Two, Body

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1974). “Letters of Anton Chekhov”, Jonathan Cape

These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. Their teachers have been the birds themselves, when they sang to them, the sun when it left a glow of crimson behind it at setting, the very trees, and wild herbs.

Anton Chekhov

Teacher, Book, Rivers

Anton Chekhov (2015). “Anton Chekhov Short Stories v2: Classic Russia Literature”, p.170, 谷月社

A man can deceive his fiancee or his mistress as much as he likes and, in the eyes of a woman he loves, an ass may pass for a philosopher. But a daughter is a different matter.

Anton Chekhov

Daughter, Eye, Men

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.250, e-artnow

Anton Chekhov Quotes - Page 8

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