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Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov Quotes

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Famous Anton Chekhov Quotes

“If an intelligent, educated, and healthy man begins to complain of his lot and go down-hill, there is nothing for him to do but to go on down until he reaches the bottom--there is no hope for him. Where could my salvation come from? How can I save myself? I cannot drink, because it makes my head ache. I never could write bad poetry. I cannot pray for strength and see anything lofty in the languor of my soul. Laziness is laziness and weakness weakness. I can find no other names for them. I am lost, I am lost; there is no doubt of that.”

IfsMenWritingI CanSoulNamesLostDoubtGoes OnPrayingDrinkHealthyWeaknessIntelligentSalvationBottomComplainingEducatedMy SoulHillsNo DoubtLazinessAcheLoftyNo Hope
Book:The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary: Three Sisters, Seagull , The Shooting Party, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, Chameleon, Tripping Tongue, On The Road, Vanka, Ward No. Six, Swedish Match, Nightmare, Bear, Reluctant Hero, Joy…
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“...and with a burning pain in my heart I realized how unnecessary, how petty, and how deceptive all that had hindered us from loving was. I understood that when you love you must either, in your reasonings about that love, start from what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, or you must not reason at all.”

HeartImportantReasonPainSinVirtueLove YouMy HeartHighestUnderstoodAcceptedI RealizedBurningReasoningUnhappinessUnnecessaryPettyDeceptive
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)
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“We are accustomed to live in hopes of good weather, a good harvest, a nice love-affair, hopes of becoming rich or getting the office of chief of police, but I've never noticed anyone hoping to get wiser. We say to ourselves: it'll be better under a new tsar, and in two hundred years it'll still be better, and nobody tries to make this good time come tomorrow. On the whole, life gets more and more complex every day and moves on its own sweet will, and people get more and more stupid, and get isolated from life in ever-increasing numbers.”

PeopleTryingYearsStillsTwoWholeMovingNumbersRichNiceStupidSweetBecomingTomorrowOfficeHundredPoliceComplexesAffairWhole LifeWeatherChiefsGood TimesIsolatedWiserHarvestAccustomedLove AffairGood Weather
Author:Anton Chekhov
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“He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know, full of relative truth and of relative falsehood, exactly like the lives of his friends and acquaintances; and another life running its course in secret. And through some strange, perhaps accidental, conjunction of circumstances, everything that was essential, of interest and of value to him, everything in which he was sincere and did not deceive himself, everything that made the kernel of his life, was hidden from other people.”

PeopleKnowsMadeTwoRunningValuesCoursesInterestSecretKnownStrangeCircumstancesEssentialsSincereRelativeFalsehoodDeceivingAcquaintanceAnother LifeKernelConjunctionsTwo LivesRelative Truth
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)
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“He always seemed to women different from what he was, and they loved in him not himself, but the man created by their imagination, whom they had been eagerly seeking all their lives; and afterwards, when they noticed their mistake, they loved him all the same.”

MenLoveDifferentAgeImaginationMistakeSeeking
Book:The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary: Three Sisters, Seagull , The Shooting Party, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, Chameleon, Tripping Tongue, On The Road, Vanka, Ward No. Six, Swedish Match, Nightmare, Bear, Reluctant Hero, Joy…
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“Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?”

TryingBelieveAgeBeautifulOrderLostFiveOne ThingYouthPureThirdsBravePassionateNobleCardsFallenThirtyFourthConsumptionWornBulletsPortraitsAnguishOblivionWorn OutVodkaLost Ones
Author:Anton Chekhov
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“After us they'll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they'll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, "Oh! Life is so hard!" and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”

MenWantYearsStillsHardLife IsDiesSecretAirStyleThousandHotThousand YearsCoatsWanting To DieBalloonsHard LifeSixth SenseAfraid Of DeathHot AirAir BalloonsHot Air Balloons
Author:Anton Chekhov
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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!”

PeopleKnowsMenWantWritingYearsMeanHas BeensArtIdeasReadingFiveStupidUnderstoodTwentiesIntelligentFive YearsNonsenseRealismConceitStupid PeopleTwenty FivePretensionNaturalismReading And Writing
Author:Anton Chekhov
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“It's better to live down a scandal than to ruin one's life.”

RuinsScandal
Book:Greatest Works of Anton Chekhov: Plays, Short Stories, Novel and A Biography (Including The Steppe, Ward No. 6, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, On Trial, The Darling, The Bet, Vanka, After the Theatre and many more)
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“The unhappy are egoistic, spiteful, unjust, cruel, and less capable of understanding each other than fools. Unhappiness does not bring people together but draws them apart, and even where one would fancy people should be united by the similarity of their sorrow, far more injustice and cruelty is generated than in comparatively placid surroundings.”

PeopleShouldDoeTogetherUnderstandingUnitedFoolSorrowCapableDrawsInjusticeUnhappyCrueltyFancyUnhappinessUnjustSurroundingsSimilarityPlacidSpitefulUnderstanding Each Other
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)
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“The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.”

LifeInspirationalThousandTenIllusion
Book:The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary: Three Sisters, Seagull , The Shooting Party, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, Chameleon, Tripping Tongue, On The Road, Vanka, Ward No. Six, Swedish Match, Nightmare, Bear, Reluctant Hero, Joy…
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“Art, especially the stage, is an area where it is impossible to walk without stumbling. There are in store for you many unsuccessful days and whole unsuccessful seasons: there will be great misunderstandings and deep disappointments… you must be prepared for all this, expect it and nevertheless, stubbornly, fanatically follow your own way.”

WayInspirationalArtWholeMotivationalActorsWalksActingImpossibleStageAreasSeasonsPreparedDisappointmentStoresNeverthelessBe PreparedMisunderstandingStumblingUnsuccessfulDeep Disappointment
Book:Letters of Anton Chekhov
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