We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well. Anton Chekhov More Quotes by Anton Chekhov More Quotes From Anton Chekhov A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Anton Chekhov stars beautiful water "Do you know," Ivan Bunin recalls Anton Chekhov saying to him in 1899, near the end of his too-short life, "for how many years I shall be read? Seven." "Why seven?" Bunin asked. "Well," Chekhov answered, "seven and a half then." Anton Chekhov half life years You are right in demanding that an artist approach his work consciously, but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist. Anton Chekhov artist work two If you can't distinguish people from lap-dogs, you shouldn't undertake philanthropic work. Anton Chekhov dog work people I am now and have always been a stranger to the realm of practical matters. Anton Chekhov stranger ignorance matter I've been reading reviews of my stories for twenty-five years, and can't remember a single useful point in any of them, or the slightest good advice. The only reviewer who ever made an impression on me was Skabichevsky, who prophesied that I would die drunk in the bottom of a ditch. Anton Chekhov editors reading years If you cry ''Forward'' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Don't 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? Anton Chekhov failure communication funny If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there. Anton Chekhov pistols wall writing 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 neither liberal, nor conservative, nor gradualist, nor monk, nor indifferentist. I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one. Anton Chekhov regret artist people I will begin with what in my opinion is your lack of restraint. You are like a spectator in a theatre who expresses his enthusiasm so unrestrainedly that he prevents himself and others from hearing. That lack of restraint is particularly noticeable in the descriptions of nature with which you interrupt dialogues; when one reads them, these descriptions, one wishes they were more compact, shorter, say two or three lines. Anton Chekhov nature wish two To believe in God is not hard. Inquisitors, Byron and Arakcheev believed in Him. No, believe in man! Anton Chekhov faith god believe Happiness does not await us all. One needn't be a prophet to say that there will be more grief and pain than serenity and money. That is why we must hang on to one another. Anton Chekhov serenity pain grief Here I am with you & yet not for a single moment do I forget that there's an unfinished novel waiting for me. Anton Chekhov waiting here-i-am forget When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief. Anton Chekhov grief heart giving Useless pursuits and conversations always about the same things absorb the better part of one's time, the better part of one's strength, and in the end there is left a life grovelling and curtailed, worthless and trivial, and there is no escaping or getting away from it—just as though one were in a madhouse or prison. Anton Chekhov escaping useless prison If one wants to lead a good life, A HUMAN LIFE, one must work. Anton Chekhov human-life good-life want God's world is a good place. The one thing not good in it is we. How little justice and humility there is in us. How little we understand true patriotism! Anton Chekhov patriotism humility justice Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant. Anton Chekhov drinking country school The more elevated a culture, the richer its language. The number of words and their combinations depends directly on a sum of conceptions and ideas; without the latter there can be no understandings, no definitions, and, as a result, no reason to enrich a language. Anton Chekhov understanding numbers ideas Writers are as jealous as pigeons. Anton Chekhov pigeons jealous
