Anton Chekhov Quotes

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

Passion must be concealed in a society where cold reserve and indifference are the signs of good breeding.

- Anton Chekhov

To advise is not to compel.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

Only entropy comes easy.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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.

- Anton Chekhov

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

- Anton Chekhov

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.

- Anton Chekhov

The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.

- Anton Chekhov

There is nothing new in art except talent.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

Advertising is the very essence of democracy.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

- Anton Chekhov

Man is what he believes.

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov

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

- Anton Chekhov