"If there's any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think."
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Quote collection
Anton Chekhov quotes (page 5 of 22)
433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics."
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"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day."
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"When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life."
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"What truth? You see where truth is, and where untruth is, but I seem to have lost my sight and see nothing. You boldly settle all important questions, but tell me, dear, isn't it because you're young, because you haven't had time to suffer till you settled a single one of your questions? You boldly look forward, isn't it because you cannot foresee or expect anything terrible, because so far life has been hidden from your young eyes? You are bolder, more honest, deeper than we are, but think only, be just a little magnanimous, and have mercy on me."
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"There are no small number of people in this world who, solitary by nature, always try to go back into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail."
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"A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend."
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"The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it."
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"In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she."
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"Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it."
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"In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit."
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"In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar."
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"I'm the seagull. No, that's not it. I'm an actress. That's it."
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"The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything."
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"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths."
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"Better to perish from fools than to accept praises from them."
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"Love, respect, and friendship do unite a people as well as a common hatred does."
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"Three o'clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking at my windows and caressingly winking at me with its stars. I can't sleep, I am so happy."
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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 no thinking will discover a better police for literature than the critics and the author's own conscience."
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"There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science."
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