Anton Chekhov Quotes, Literature Quotes

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

5 years ago

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Literature Quotes

I've been reading reviews of my stories for twenty-five years, and can't remember a single useful point in any of them, or the slightest good advice. The only reviewer who ever made an impression on me was Skabichevsky, who prophesied that I would die drunk in the bottom of a ditch.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Reading Quotes , Years Quotes

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Lying Quotes , Writing Quotes

What's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country; the people have no morals; and the boredom!

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Country Quotes , Talking Quotes

we all have too many wheels, screws and valves to judge each other on first impressions or one or two pointers. I don't understand you, you don't understand me and we don't understand ourselves.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Two Quotes , Judging Quotes

It seems to me that all of the evil in life comes from idleness, boredom, and psychic emptiness, but all of that is inevitable when you become accustomed to living at others' expense.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Psychics Quotes , Boredom Quotes

When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder - that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. Yes, be more cold. ... The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Kindness Quotes , Grief Quotes

A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Sweet Quotes , Real Quotes

He is no longer a city dweller who has even once in his life caught a ruff or seen how, on clear and cool autumn days, flocks of migrating thrushes drift over a village. Until his death he will be drawn to freedom.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Nature Quotes , Freedom Quotes

Never bring a cannon on stage in Act I unless you intend to fire it by the last act.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Fire Quotes , Lasts Quotes

What must human beings be, to destroy what they can never create?

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Humans Quotes

If you fear loneliness, then don't get married.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Marriage Quotes , Fear Quotes

Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Canaries Quotes

My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.

5 years ago

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Business Quotes , Thinking Quotes

When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole ocean-that is faith; but when one begins to drink, one can only drink altogether two glasses-that is science.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Faith Quotes , Ocean Quotes

Hypocrisy is a revolting, psychopathic state.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Hypocrisy Quotes , States Quotes

When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Ocean Quotes , Glasses Quotes

It is the writer's business not to accuse and not to prosecute, but to champion the guilty, once they are condemned and suffer punishment.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Punishment Quotes , Champion Quotes

Sports are positively essential. It is healthy to engage in sports, they are beautiful and liberal, liberal in the sense that nothing serves quite as well to integrate social classes, etc., than street or public games.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Sports Quotes

In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture. For instance, you'll have a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled past like a ball.

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Tags : Anton Chekhov Quotes , Dog Quotes , Stars Quotes