Anton Chekhov Quotes

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds. Wisdom... comes not from age, but from education and learning. This life of ours... Human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up, no more flower. There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked. Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics. Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be. The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible. What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself. The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly. When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured. Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day-to-day living that wears you out. A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages, first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend. Man will become better when you show him what he is like. If ever my life can be of any use to you, come and claim it. These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. Their teachers have been the birds themselves, when they sang to them, the sun when it left a glow of crimson behind it at setting, the very trees, and wild herbs. To fear love is to fear life, and those whose fear life are already three parts dead... The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it. Even in Siberia there is happiness. Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality. If you want to work on your art, work on your life. The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them. I was oppressed with a sense of vague discontent and dissatisfaction with my own life, which was passing so quickly and uninterestingly, and I kept thinking it would be a good thing if I could tear my heart out of my breast, that heart which had grown so weary of life. Man is what he believes. When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life. It's very hard, feeling that you're no more than a piece of unwanted furniture in this world. And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe. I kept thinking how marvellous it would be if I could somehow tear my heart, which felt so heavy, out of my chest. Dear and most respected bookcase! I welcome your existence, which has for over one hundred years been devoted to the radiant ideals of goodness and justice. Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

Anton Chekhov

1860 - 1904