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Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov Quotes

Physician

Anton Chekhov, born on January 29, 1860, was a prominent Russian physician and short story writer. His works are renowned for their profound psychological insights and critical portrayal of social realities. Chekhov's short stories have had a profound impact on literature both in Russia and around the world.

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All People Ifs Men Writing Knows Literature Should Two Thinking Persons Years Artist Life Lying Doe Firsts Happiness Looks Seems Want

Famous Anton Chekhov Quotes

“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.”

Ifs Should Firsts Has Beens Ends Stories Used Lying My Own Written Subjects Wall Gun Concerned Crosses Chapters Hanging On

Author:Anton Chekhov

“The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.”

People Lying Secret Boring Boredom People Lie

Author:Anton Chekhov

“An enormously vast field lies between "God exists" and "there is no God." The truly wise man traverses it with great difficulty. A Russian knows one or the other of these two extremes, but is not interested in the middle ground. He usually knows nothing, or very little.”

Knows Men Littles Two Lying Wise Middle Fields Difficulty Extremes Not Interested There Is No God God Exists Middle Ground Traverse Two Extremes

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Death can only be profitable: there's no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.”

People Ifs Needs Years Persons Lying Turns Pay Drink Taxes Profit Graves Enormous Profitable

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Probably nature itself gave man the ability to lie so that in difficult and tense moments he could protect his nest, just as do the vixen and wild duck.”

Men Moments Lying Difficult Ability Protect Ducks Tense Nests Vixens

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Love is a great thing. It is not by chance that in all times and practically among all cultured peoples love in the general senseand the love of a man for his wife are both called love. If love is often cruel or destructive, the reasons lie not in love itself, but in the inequality between people.”

People Ifs Men Love Reason Lying Chance Love Is Wife Great Things All Time Inequality Destructive

Author:Anton Chekhov

“To dine, drink champagne, raise a racket and make speeches about the people's consciousness, the people's conscience, freedom andso forth while servants in tails are scurrying around your table, just like serfs, and out in the severe cold on the street await coachmen--this is the same as lying to the holy spirit.”

People Spirit Lying Consciousness Streets Cold Drink Holy Speech Conscience Raises Tables Slavery Servant Holy Spirit Hypocrisy Tails Severe Champagne Racket Dine Serfs

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Not everyone knows how to be silent or to leave in good time. It happens that even people of good breeding fail to notice that their presence provokes in the weary or preoccupied host a feeling akin to hatred, and that this feeling is tensely concealed and covered up with lies.”

People Knows Feelings Happens Lying Know How Failing Hatred Silent Manners Good Times Covered Host Guests Provoking Weary Concealed Breeding Good Breeding Covered Up

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Even while lying, you'll be believed if you speak with authority.”

Ifs Lying Speak Authority

Author:Anton Chekhov

“You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)

“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.”

“A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.”

Real Lying Sweet Gracious Real Truth

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Oh, dreams! In one night, lying with one's eyes shut, one may sometimes live through more than ten years of happiness.”

Years May Sometimes Dream Eye Happiness Lying Night Ten One Night

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)

“[In] death at least there would be one profit; it would no longer be necessary to eat, to drink, to pay taxes, or to [offend] others; and as a man lies in his grave not one year, but hundreds and thousands of years, the profit was enormous. The life of man was, in short, a loss, and only his death a profit.”

Men Years Would Be Science Death Lying Loss Pay Drink Taxes Profit Graves Enormous Lying Men

Book:The Works of Anton Chekhov

Source: The Works of Anton Chekhov

“Just as I shall lie alone in the grave, so, in essence, do I live alone.”

Lying Essence Graves

Author:Anton Chekhov

“Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.”

Lying Liars Alcoholism Deathbed

Author:Anton Chekhov

“The leaves did not stir on the trees, grasshoppers chirruped, and the monotonous hollow sound of the sea rising up from below, spoke of the peace, of the eternal sleep awaiting us. So it must have sounded when there was no Yalta, no Oreanda here; so it sounds now, and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more. And in this constancy, in this complete indifference to the life and death of each of us, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, of unceasing progress towards perfection.”

Earth Lying Sound Sleep Progress Tree Sea Movement Eternal Perfection Salvation Indifference Rising Life And Death Spokes Hollow Pledge Monotonous Constancy Rising Up Grasshoppers

Author:Anton Chekhov