You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.

The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary (ed. e-artnow, 2015) - ISBN: 9788026838364