Anton Chekhov Quotes

Byelokurov . . . began a long-winded disquisition on the malady of the age -- pessimism. He talked confidently, in a tone that suggested that I was opposing him. Hundreds of miles of desolate, monotonous, burnt-up steppe cannot induce such deep depression as one man when he sits and talks, and one does not know when he will go.

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

The Colonel knew by experience that in women like his wife, Sofya Lvovna, after a little too much wine, turbulent gaiety was followed by hysterical laughter and then tears. He was afraid that when they got home, instead of being able to sleep, he would have to be administering compresses and drops.

When we retreat to the country, we are hiding not from people, but from our pride, which, in the city and among people, operates unfairly and immoderately.

It is not only the prisoners who grow coarse and hardened from corporeal punishment, but those as well who perpetrate the act or are present to witness it.

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

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.

And the existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this life.

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.

Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.

They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.

I feel as if I had been in the world a thousand years, and I trail my life behind me like an endless scarf.

In your books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain, burned towns, preached new religions, conquered whole kingdoms

If you really think about it, everything is wonderful in this world, everything except for our thoughts and deeds when we forget about the loftier goals of existence, about our human dignity.

If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.