Anton Chekhov Quotes

279 Sourced Quotes

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.

Anton Chekhov
Between 'God exists' and 'There is no God' lies a whole enormous field which a true sage has great difficulty in crossing. But a Russian knows only one of these two extremes and the middle between them doesn't interest him…A good man's indifference is as good as any religion.

Anton Chekhov
One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they'll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.

Anton Chekhov
People who live alone always have something on their minds that they would willingly share.

Anton Chekhov
The person who wants nothing, hopes for nothing, and fears nothing can never be an artist.

Anton Chekhov
If there's any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.

Anton Chekhov
There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.

Anton Chekhov
But perhaps the universe is suspended on the tooth of some monster.

Anton Chekhov
I'm a seagull. No, that's wrong. Remember you shot a seagull? A man happened to come along, saw it and killed it, just to pass the time. A plot for a short story.

Anton Chekhov
What seems to us serious, significant and important will, in future times, be forgotten or won't seem important at all.

Anton Chekhov
There are plenty of people in the world, solitary by temperament, who try to retreat into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.

Anton Chekhov
I don't know why one can't chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of those words. If you have the hounds, go ahead and pursue.

Anton Chekhov
Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.

Anton Chekhov
Once you've married, be strict but just with your wife, don't allow her to forget herself, and when a misunderstanding arises, say: Don't forget that I made you happy.

Anton Chekhov
A grimy fly can soil the entire wall and a small, dirty little act can ruin the entire proceedings.

Anton Chekhov
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.

Anton Chekhov
One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.

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.

Anton Chekhov
In order to cultivate yourself and to drop no lower than the level of the milieu in which you have landed, it is not enough to read Pickwick and memorize a monologue from Faust.... You need to work continually day and night, to read ceaselessly, to study, to exercise your will.... Each hour is precious.

Anton Chekhov
Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

Anton Chekhov
It's worth living abroad to study up on genteel and delicate manners. The maid smiles continuously; she smiles like a duchess on a stage, while at the same time it is clear from her face that she is exhausted from overwork.

Anton Chekhov
There is nothing more vapid than a philistine petty bourgeois existence with its farthings, victuals, vacuous conversations, and useless conventional virtue.

Anton Chekhov
There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

Anton Chekhov
You look at any poetic creature: muslin, ether, demigoddess, millions of delights; then you look into the soul and find the most ordinary crocodile!

Anton Chekhov
Death can only be profitable: there's no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.

Anton Chekhov
There is no Monday which will not give its place to Tuesday.

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
You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I think: "Oh Lord, you've given us huge forests, infinite fields, and endless horizons, and we, living here, ought really to be giants.

Anton Chekhov
By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations.

Anton Chekhov
The cherry orchard is now mine!... I bought the estate on which my grandfather and father were slaves, where they were not even permitted in the kitchen.

Anton Chekhov