Anton Chekhov Quotes

God's world is a good place. The one thing not good in it is we. How little justice and humility there is in us. How little we understand true patriotism!

If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It's better to live somehow than not at all.

You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly.

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.

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

Dear, sweet, unforgettable childhood!

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

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

A good person will feel guilty even before a dog.

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

It is easier to ask of the poor than of the rich.

Flies purify the air, and plays - the morals.

Great Jove angry is no longer Jove.

[W]hen people are ashamed they hold aloof, above all from those nearest to them, and are unreserved with strangers

In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!", May 10, 1886)

His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another.

Country life has its advantages, ' he used to say. 'You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim on the pond, and everything smells good. . . and there are gooseberries.

The sufferings which may be observed nowadays - they are so widespread and so vast - but people speak nevertheless about a certain moral improvement which society has achieved…

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

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

But then there's loneliness. However you might philosophise about it, loneliness is a terrible thing, my dear fellow… Although in reality, of course, it's absolutely of no importance!

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

HELENA. What a fine day! Not too hot. [A pause.]VOITSKI. A fine day to hang oneself.

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

Going to see plays isn't what you people should do. Try looking at yourselves a little more often and see what gray lives you all lead. How much of what you say is unnecessary.

True happiness is impossible without solitude. The fallen angel probably betrayed God because he longed for solitude, which angels do not know.

Shabelsky: O mind of genius, you think up things for everyone and teach everyone, but why not for once teach me... Teach me, great brain, show me the way out...

I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn't fame or glamour, none of the things I used to dream about, it's the ability to endure.

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

LUBOV. I'm quite sure there wasn't anything at all funny. You oughtn't to go and see plays, you ought to go and look at yourself. What a grey life you lead, what a lot you talk unnecessarily.

If Makar Denisych was just a clerk or a junior manager, then no one would have dared talk to him in such a condescending, casual tone, but he is a 'writer', and a talentless medio

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

What is there flattering, amusing, or edifying in their carving your name on a tombstone, then time rubbing off the inscription together with the gilding?

Existence is tedious, anyway.

Happiness does not exist, nor should it, and if there is any meaning or purpose in life, they are not in our peddling little happiness, but in something reasonable and grand. Do good!

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

Lice consume grass, rust consumes iron, and lying the soul!

Every personal existence was upheld by a secret.

Flies purify the air, and plays--the morals.

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

The teacher must be an actor, an artist, passionately in love with his work.

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

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

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

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

Men are made for happiness and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: "I am doing God's will on earth."

Medicine is my lawful wife. Literature is my mistress.

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

Conciseness is the sister of talent.

Posterity will say as usual: "In the past things were better the present is worse than the past."