Anton Chekhov quotes - page 8

Everyone judges plays as if they were very easy to write. They don't know that it is hard to write a good play, and twice as hard and tortuous to write a bad one. (Anton Chekhov)
While you're playing cards with a regular guy or having a bite to eat with him, he seems a peaceable, good-humoured and not entirely dense person. But just begin a conversation with him about something inedible, politics or science, for instance, and he ends up in a deadend or starts in on such an obtuse and base philosophy that you can only wave your hand and leave. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Between "there is a God" and "there is no God" lies a whole vast tract, which the really wise man crosses with great effort. A Russian knows one or other of these two extremes, and the middle tract between them does not interest him; and therefore he usually knows nothing, or very little. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Nature's law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packaged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Children are holy and pure. Even those of bandits and crocodiles belong among the angels.... They must not be turned into a plaything of one's mood, first to be tenderly kissed, then rabidly stomped at. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Those who come a hundred or two hundred years after us will despise us for having lived our lives so stupidly and tastelessly. Perhaps they'll find a means to be happy. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Ordinary hypocrites pretend to be doves; political and literary hypocrites pretend to be eagles. But don't be disconcerted by their aquiline appearance. They are not eagles, but rats or dogs. View quote
Anton Chekhov
In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness.... The expanses are so great that the little man hasn't the resources to orient himself.... This is what I think about Russian suicides. View quote
Anton Chekhov
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. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples' character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe.... What a terrible future! View quote
Anton Chekhov
Ah, but ignorance is better. At least then there's hope. View quote
Anton Chekhov
An artist must pass judgment only on what he understands; his range is limited as that of any other specialist-that's what I keep repeating and insisting upon. Anyone who says that the artist's field is all answers and no questions has never done any writing or had any dealings with imagery. An artist observes, selects, guesses and synthesizes. (Anton Chekhov)
Yes, that's how it is, child. He who works, he who is patient is the superior. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Why do I love him so much, mamma? Why do I feel so sorry for him?" she went on in a quivering voice, and her eyes glistened with tears. "Who is he? What is he like? As light as a little feather, as a little crumb, but I love him; I love him like a real person. Here he can do nothing, he can't talk, and yet I know what he wants with his little eyes. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Only entropy comes easy. View quote
Anton Chekhov
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible. View quote
Anton Chekhov
Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit. View quote
Anton Chekhov
To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God. View quote
Anton Chekhov
To advise is not to compel. View quote
Anton Chekhov
There is nothing new in art except talent. View quote
Anton Chekhov
If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go. (Anton Chekhov)
A woman is fascinated not by art but by the noise made by those in the field. View quote
Anton Chekhov
When a woman isn't beautiful, people always say, 'You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.' View quote
Anton Chekhov
One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake. View quote
Anton Chekhov
A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer. View quote
Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Occupation: Russian Dramatist
Born: January 17, 1860
Died: July 2, 1904
Quotes count: 269
Wikipedia: Anton Chekhov

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