One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it. — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
I kept thinking how marvellous it would be if I could somehow tear my heart, which felt so heavy, out of my… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
I think that it would be less difficult to live eternally than to be deprived of sleep throughout life. — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Life is a vexatious trap; when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
If there's any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think. — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
It's not a matter of old or new forms; a person writes without thinking about any forms, he writes because it flows… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Watching a woman make Russian pancakes, you might think that she was calling on the spirits or extracting from the batter the… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can't… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Try to be original in your play and as clever as possible; but don't be afraid to show yourself foolish; we must… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
You don't understand, you fool' says Yegor, looking dreamily up at the sky. 'You've never understood what kind of person I am,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
The bourgeoisie is very fond of so-called practical types and novels with happy endings, since they soothe it with the idea that… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness… The expanses are… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
I think human beings must have faith or must look for faith, otherwise our life is empty, empty. To live and not… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
An artist must only judge of what he understands, his field is just as limited as that of any other specialist... That… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Ivanov: Once I worked hard and thought a lot but I never got tired; now I do nothing and think of nothing,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . .… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
“Everything I have written up to now is trifling compared to that which I would like to write and would write with… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
I often wonder: suppose we could begin life over again, knowing what we were doing? Suppose we could use one life, already… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
What truth? You see where truth is, and where untruth is, but I seem to have lost my sight and see nothing.… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
I was oppressed with a sense of vague discontent and dissatisfaction with my own life, which was passing so quickly and uninterestingly,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
“Using vile means to attain worthy ends makes the ends themselves vile. Let them ride on the backs of doctors and medical assistants, but… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments ,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“But here was all the timorousness and angularity of inexperienced youth, a feeling of awkwardness, and an impression of bewilderment, as if someone had… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“At the water's edge, barrels of pitch blazed like huge bonfires. Their reflection, crimson as the rising moon, crept to meet us in long,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
Anna Petrovna: Never talk to women about your own good qualities. Let them find out for themselves. — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
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… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“Lebedev: France has a clear and defined policy... The French know what they want. They just want to wipe out the Krauts, finish, but… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“My holy of holies are the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom - freedom from force and falsity,… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“What we have, we do not treasure,” and what’s more we do not even love it.” — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
“Experience often repeated, truly bitter experience, had taught him long ago that with decent people, especially Moscow people -- always slow to move and… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share
