Literature Quotes by Anton Chekhov

15 Literature quotes by Anton Chekhov

All Literature quotes Anton Chekhov’s page

Chekhov’s spare prose often hides deep currents; these fifteen quotations let you feel the quiet power of his observations on the craft of writing.

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“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with…

Anton Chekhov

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I don't like being successful; the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.

Anton Chekhov

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Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

Anton Chekhov

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Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job…

Anton Chekhov

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In my head there is a whole army of people asking to be let out and waiting for the word of command.

Anton Chekhov

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There are people whom even children's literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in…

Anton Chekhov

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To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.

Anton Chekhov

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When all is said and done, no literature can outdo the cynicism of real life; you won't intoxicate with one glass someone…

Anton Chekhov

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“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with…

Anton Chekhov

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I am writing a play which I probably will not finish until the end of November. I am writing it with considerable…

Anton Chekhov

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I feel more confident and more satisfied when I reflect that I have two professions and not one. Medicine is my lawful…

Anton Chekhov

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Pharisaism, obtuseness and tyranny reign not only in the homes of merchants and in jails; I see it in science, in literature,…

Anton Chekhov

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But if you had asked him what his work was, he would look candidly and openly at you with his large bright…

Anton Chekhov

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I agree that one can't dispense with the reins and the whip altogether, for knaves find their way even into literature, but…

Anton Chekhov

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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

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“Using vile means to attain worthy ends makes the ends themselves vile. Let them ride on the backs of doctors and medical assistants, but…

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If ever my life can be of any use to you, come and claim it.

Anton Chekhov

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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

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“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

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“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

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Anna Petrovna: Never talk to women about your own good qualities. Let them find out for themselves.

Anton Chekhov

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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

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“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

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“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

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“What we have, we do not treasure,” and what’s more we do not even love it.”

Anton Chekhov

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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

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“It is my opinion that every woman can be a writer.”

Anton Chekhov

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“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

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“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

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“Why do you always wear black?” "I am mourning for my life.”

Anton Chekhov

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