Quotes by Anton Chekhov

"The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected."

"Advertising is the very essence of democracy."

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

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

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

"Doctors are just 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 only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"There is nothing new in art except talent."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry."

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

"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."