Anton Chekhov

Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because to this day it regards conflict as the central facet of life.

To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God.

If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.

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

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

Thought and beauty like a hurricane or waves should not know conventional delimited forms.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

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.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.

Advertising is the very essence of democracy.

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.

To live simply to die is by no means amusing, but to live with the knowledge that you will die before your time, that's really is idiotic

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.

The air of one's native country is the most healthy air.

Country acquaintances are charming only in the country and only in the summer. In the city in winter they lose half of their appeal.

No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith.

The only difference between doctors and lawyers is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you, too.

Man will become better when you show him what he is like.

Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.

Only echoes answer me.

The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on; science and art are as well.

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.

Country life has its advantages he used to say. You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim on the pond and everything smells good and there are gooseberries.

And the existence is tedious anyway it is a senseless dirty business this life.

No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.

They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.

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.

A fiance is neither this nor that hes left one shore but not yet reached the other.

Common hypocrites pass themselves off as doves; political and literary hypocrites pose as eagles. But don't be fooled by their eagle-like appearance. These are not eagles, but rats or dogs.

Any idiot can face a crisis, it's day to day living that wears you out.

You must trust and believe in people, or life becomes impossible.

When a woman isn't beautiful, people always say, 'You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.'

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

An expansive life, one not constrained by four walls, requires as well an expansive pocket.

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

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.

It's easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

A fiance is neither this nor that: he's left one shore, but not yet reached the other.

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

Only entropy comes easy.

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

It's very hard, feeling that you're no more than a piece of unwanted furniture in this world.

To advise is not to compel.

I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, will not appear every day in my sky.

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.

Death is terrifying, but it would be even more terrifying to find out that you are going to live forever and never die.

It's even pleasant to be sick when you know that there are people who await your recovery as they might await a holiday.

A naive man is nothing better than a fool. But you women contrive to be naive in such a way that in you it seems sweet, and gentle, and proper, and not as silly as it really is.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.

When an actor has money he doesn't send letters, he sends telegrams.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science.

Man is what he believes.

The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.

Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

Doctors are the same as lawyers the sole difference being that lawyers only rob you but doctors rob you and kill you too.

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.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured.

How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.