215 quotes
That which we experience when we are in love is perhaps our normal state. Being in love shows a person who they should be.
I should think that for one who has tasted the joys of creation, no other pleasure could exist.
The Seagull (1896)
To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
Beware of exquisite language. The language should be simple and elegant.
I don’t know why one can’t chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of those words. If you have the hounds, go ahead and pursue.
When you live on cash, you understand the limits of the world around which you navigate each day. Credit leads into a desert with invisible boundaries.
Lermontov died at age twenty-eight and wrote more than have you and I put together. Talent is recognizable not only by quality, but also by the quantity it yields.
One can only call that youth healthful which refuses to be reconciled to old ways and which, foolishly or shrewdly, combats the old. This is nature’s charge and all progress hinges upon it.
It always seems to the brothers and the father that their brother or son didn't marry the right person.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
Despicable means used to achieve laudable goals render the goals themselves despicable.
Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
If you have a rifle, hanging on the wall in the first act, it should fire in the last
Mankind has conceived history as a series of battles; hitherto it has considered fighting as the main thing in life.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on; science and art are as well.
A Dreary Story or A Tedious Story (1889)
They say: "In the long run truth will triumph;" but it is untrue.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
A nice man would feel ashamed even before a dog.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
Love is a scandal of the personal sort.
The Piano Player (1885)
By poeticizing love, we imagine in those we love virtues that they often do not possess; this then becomes the source of constant mistakes and constant distress.
Ariadne (1895)
Satiation, like any state of vitality, always contains a degree of impudence, and that impudence emerges first and foremost when the sated man instructs the hungry one.