Anton Chekhov
Master of the short story and modern drama
Most quoted
"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he has been given. But up to now he has not created, but only destroyed. Forests are disappearing, rivers are drying up, wildlife is becoming extinct, the climate is spoiled, and every day the earth is growing poorer and uglier."
— from Uncle Vanya, 1897
"If you want to be a pessimist and write a novel, you must be a pessimist and write a novel. If you want to be an optimist and write a novel, you must be an optimist and write a novel. But if you want to be a realist and write a novel, you must be a realist and write a novel."
— from Letters
"The people I am afraid of are the ones who look for tendentiousness between the lines and are determined to see me as either liberal or conservative. I am not a liberal, not a conservative... I should have liked to be a free artist and that's all."
— from Letter to A.S. Suvorin, 1888
All quotes by Anton Chekhov (291)
The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy.
Talent is a faith in oneself.
Critics are like brushers of modern paintings.
I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all that is accessible to man.
The disease has sharpened my sense of beauty.
Get into hot water or get out of cold water.
No one knows anything about literature who has not read Russian classics.
The best stories are those that are told without words.
Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
A man can be quite content in prison if he has a good book.
The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.
Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.
I have been writing for fifteen years, and I have not yet learned to write.
When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured.
On my deathbed, I will be whispering: 'I am a doctor.'
The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.
If you want to work, then work. If you don't want to work, then don't work. But don't complain.
Love, friendship, respect, admiration, these are the things that make a life rich. Without them, it's just a bare existence.
The artist is not a juggler.
Everything on earth is beautiful, everything — except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.
Contemporaries of Anton Chekhov
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Anton Chekhov (1860–1904).