Anton Chekhov Quotes

Podtyagin considers whether to take offence or not -- and decides to take offence.

The geniuses of all ages and of all lands speak different languages but the same flame burns in them...

LUBOV. I'm quite sure there wasn't anything at all funny. You oughtn't to go and see plays, you ough...

I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn...

But if we reason it out simply and not try to be one bit fancy, then what sort of pride can you poss...

We just philosophize, complain of boredom, or drink vodka. It's so clear, you see, that if we're to ...

Going to see plays isn't what you people should do. Try looking at yourselves a little more often an...

A hungry dog believes in nothing but meat.

And what does it mean -- dying? Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and only the five we know are lost...

To leave town, and the struggle and the swim of life, and go and hide yourself in a farmhouse is not...

And you know once a man has fished, or watched the thrushes hovering in flocks over the village in t...

Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally...

The past,' he thought, 'is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of...

The sufferings which may be observed nowadays - they are so widespread and so vast - but people spea...

MASHA. Just think, I am already beginning to forget her face. People will not remember us either. Th...

MASHA: Isn’t there some meaning?TOOZENBACH: Meaning? … Look out there, it’s snowing. What’s the mean...

With total rapture and delight he talks about the birds which he can see from his prison window, and...

But then there's loneliness. However you might philosophise about it, loneliness is a terrible thing...

There will come a time when everybody will know why, for what purpose, there is all this suffering, ...

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistr...

In short, the man displayed a constant and insurmountable impulse to wrap himself in a covering, to ...

As a rule, however fine and deep a phrase may be, it only affects the indifferent, and cannot fully ...

In all nature there seemed to be a feeling of hopelessness and pain. The earth, like a ruined woman ...

If Makar Denisych was just a clerk or a junior manager, then no one would have dared talk to him in ...

If Makar Denisych was just a clerk or a junior manager, then no one would have dared talk to him in ...

He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know, full of relative truth and of ...

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

To torment and tantalize oneself with hopes of possible fortune is so sweet, so thrilling!

A man who under the influence of mental pain or unbearably oppressive suffering sends a bullet throu...

I've never been in love. I've dreamt of it day and night, but my heart is like a fine piano no one c...

Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than...

Shabelsky: O mind of genius, you think up things for everyone and teach everyone, but why not for on...

Borkin: Ladies and gentlemen, why are you so glum? Sitting there like a jury after it's been sworn i...

Ivanov: I am a bad, pathetic and worthless individual. One needs to be pathetic, too, worn out and d...

Ivanov: And this whole romance of ours is commonplace and trite: he lost heart, and he lost his way....

Ivanov: With a heavy head, with a slothful spirit, exhausted, overstretched, broken, without faith, ...

Ivanov: No, my clever young thing, it's not a question of romance. I say as before God that I will e...

Lebedev: A time has come of sorrow and sadness for you. Man, my dear friend, is like a samovar. It d...

Ivanov: Gentlemen, you've again set up a drinking shop in my study... I have asked each and every on...

Ivanov: Once I worked hard and thought a lot but I never got tired; now I do nothing and think of no...

Lebedev: France has a clear and defined policy... The French know what they want. They just want to ...

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

The Lie which elates us is dearer than a thousand sober truths

Country life has its advantages,' he used to say. 'You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your duck...

Happiness does not exist, nor should it, and if there is any meaning or purpose in life, they are no...

Science and art,... they seek the truth and the meaning of life, they seek God, [and] the soul, and ...

You don't understand, you fool' says Yegor, looking dreamily up at the sky. 'You've never understood...

Three o'clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking at my windows and caressingly winking ...

Civilized people must, I believe, satisfy the following criteria:1) They respect human beings as ind...

Wisdom.... comes not from age, but from education and learning.

No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatan...

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

If you want to work on your acting, work on yourself.

Little girls ought to be taught and brought up with boys, so that they might be always together. A w...

Anna Petrovna: I am beginning to think, doctor, that fate has cheated me. The majority of people, wh...

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader ...

Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love ...

Nadya Zelenin and her mother had returned from a performance of Eugene Onegin at the theatre. Going ...

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

Men are made for happiness and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: "I am ...

...a writer should not so much write as embroider on paper; the work should be painstaking, laboriou...

When an actor has money he doesn't send letters but telegrams.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith when you start t...

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

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

When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life.

A man and a woman marry because both of them don't know what to do with themselves.

For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch...

Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.

Dear and most respected bookcase! I welcome your existence, which has for over one hundred years bee...

Man is what he believes.

You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness f...

There is nothing new in art except talent.

Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the n...

True happiness is impossible without solitude. The fallen angel probably betrayed God because he lon...

It was hard and sour, but, as Poushkin said, the illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten t...

These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. Their t...

The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to.

For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to...

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the g...

Every personal existence was upheld by a secret.

If only you would go to the university," he said. "Only enlightened and holy people are interesting,...

His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save h...

And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fle...

Conciseness is the sister of talent.

If you cry "Forward " you must make plain in what direction to go.

What is there flattering, amusing, or edifying in their carving your name on a tombstone, then time ...

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the ...

Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the n...

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.

Existence is tedious, anyway.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night wi...

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas do...

I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all that is accessible to man.

I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all that is accessible to man. I long to speak, ...

When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader ...