Quotes by Anton Chekhov

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

“I try to catch every sentence, every word you and I say, and quickly lock all these sentences and words away in my literary storehouse because they might come in handy”

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

“People are far more sincere and good-humored at speeding their parting guests than on meeting them”

“If you cry Forward you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Dont you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely opposite directions?”

“Man is what he believes”

“It seemed that the next minute they would discover a solution. Yet it was clear to both of them that the end was still far, far off, and that the hardest and most complicated part was only just beginning.”

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”

“To advise is not to compel.”

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

“Friends will be much apart. They will respect more each others privacy than their communion.”

“Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth”

“When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving ones self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what world calls a romance.”

“There is nothing new in art except talent.”

“I dont need the money, dear. I work for art.”

“Art is a deliberate recreation of a new and special reality that grows from your response to life. It cannot be copied; it must be created.”

“At the door of every happy person there should be a man with a hammer whose knock would serve as a constant reminder of the existence of unfortunate people.”

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 dont want to understand you.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

Wisdom.... comes not from age, but from education and learning.