Try to reason about love, and you will lose your reason. Anton Chekhov More Quotes by Anton Chekhov More Quotes From Anton Chekhov The bourgeoisie is very fond of so-called practical types and novels with happy endings, since they soothe it with the idea that one can both accumulate capital and preserve innocence, be a beast and at the same time be happy... Anton Chekhov greedhappinessthinking Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it. Anton Chekhov aptitudespiritfacts I can only regard with bewilderment an educated man who is also religious Anton Chekhov educatedreligiousmen When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life. Anton Chekhov mourningblacksaid I divide all literary works into two categories: Those I like and those I don't like. No other criterion exists for me. Anton Chekhov criteriacategoriestwo Love, respect, and friendship do unite a people as well as a common hatred does. Anton Chekhov hatreddoepeople In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Anton Chekhov psychologyessentialscharacter Oh, dreams! In one night, lying with one's eyes shut, one may sometimes live through more than ten years of happiness. Anton Chekhov dreamhappinesslying Man will become better when you show him what he is like. Anton Chekhov blank-slatesinsightmen No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing. Anton Chekhov psychologyfake-peopledoe And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life. Anton Chekhov grayfirst-timefirsts For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace. Anton Chekhov soullifeschool There is nothing more vulgar than a petty bourgeois life with its halfpence, its victuals, its futile talk, and its useless conventional virtue. Anton Chekhov vapidmediocrityuseless Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms. Anton Chekhov grumblingmiscarriageart In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit. Anton Chekhov remainspermanentspirit 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. Anton Chekhov numberstryingpeople 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. Anton Chekhov casheach-dayworld In a century or two, or in a millennium, people will live in a new way, a happier way. We won"t be there to see it - but it"s why we live, why we work. It"s why we suffer. We"re creating it. That"s the purpose of our existence. The only happiness we can know is to work toward that goal. Anton Chekhov creatingtwopeople The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible. Anton Chekhov silenceunhappymen Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would be like that with me. That if I died I would still be part of life in one way or another. Anton Chekhov treewindthinking