Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Playwright, Short Story Writer

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer, known for his keen insights into human psychology and social issues, particularly in works like 'The Seagull.'

Men People Writing Thinking Two Lying
Born
January 29, 1860
Died
July 15, 1904
Quotes
433
Rank
#87

Quote collection

Anton Chekhov quotes (page 12 of 22)

433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"Not only after two or three centuries, but in a million years, life will still be as it was; life does not change, it remains for ever, following its own laws which do not concern us, or which, at any rate, you will never find out. Migrant birds, cranes for example, fly and fly, and whatever thoughts, high or low, enter their heads, they will still fly and not know why or where. They fly and will continue to fly, whatever philosophers come to life among them; they may philosophize as much as they like, only they will fly."

Years Law Two
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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"Life has gone by as if I never lived"

Gone Ifs
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"This man, who for twenty-five years has been reading and writing about art, and in all that time has never understood anything about art, has for twenty-five years been hashing over other people's ideas about realism, naturalism and all that nonsense; for twenty-five years he has been reading and writing about what intelligent people already know and about what stupid people don't want to know--which means that for twenty-five years he's been taking nothing and making nothing out of it. And with it all, what conceit! What pretension!"

Art Stupid Reading
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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"Revolting means for good ends make the ends of themselves revolting."

Mean Goal Achieve
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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What amazing workers."

Writing Example Want
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"An artist must only judge of what he understands, his field is just as limited as that of any other specialist... That in his sphere there are no questions, but only answers, can only be maintained by those who have never written and have had no experience of thinking in images."

Artist Criticism Answers
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"Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one's dignity."

People May Dignity
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"You don't understand, you fool' says Yegor, looking dreamily up at the sky. 'You've never understood what kind of person I am, nor will you in a million years... You just think I'm a mad person who has thrown his life away... Once the free spirit has taken hold of a man, there's no way of getting it out of him."

Taken Thinking Men
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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"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."

Years Justice Welcome
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"I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all that is accessible to man. I long to speak, to read, to wield a hammer in a great factory, to keep watch at sea, to plow. I want to be walking along the Nevsky Prospect, or in the open fields, or on the ocean - wherever my imagination ranges."

Life Ocean Men
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"Your talent sets you apart: if you were a toad or a tarantula, even then, people would respect you, for to talent all things are forgiven."

People Toads Tarantulas
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"In descriptions of nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture."

Writing Eye Details
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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer
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"I'm in mourning for my life."

Mourning
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"I am dying. I haven't drunk champagne for a long time."

Time Long Drunk
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"A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth."

Sweet Real Lying
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"Just as I shall lie alone in the grave, so, in essence, do I live alone."

Lying Essence Graves
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"An artist observes, selects, guesses, and synthesizes."

Art Artist
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"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 . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not concerned with the subject. If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story."

Wall Lying Gun
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"I have no faith in our hypocritical, false, hysterical, uneducated and lazy intelligentsia when they suffer and complain: their oppression comes from within. I believe in individual people. I see salvation in discrete individuals, intellectuals and peasants, strewn hither and yon throughout Russia. They have the strength, although there are few of them."

Integrity Believe Russia
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