Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904) was Russia’s greatest playwright and one of the inventors of the modern short story. He is celebrate for his synthesis of naturalism and symbolism in his portrayals of upper-class life in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Born in Taganrog, Russia, into a family of farmers, Chekhov studied medicine and became a doctor. At the same time, he supported his family as a freelance journalist and a writer of comic sketches. He considered himself a doctor above all and a writer in pastime; he declared, “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity.”
Chekhov had a considerable influence on 20th-century drama. His first play, The Seagull, opened unsuccessfully in 1885. It got awful reviews, and he walked out on it at intermission and was determined never to compose another play. However, two years later, when it was produced a second time by the Moscow Art Theater and directed by Constantin Stanislavsky, it received rave reviews. This triumph inspired Chekhov to write the plays The Three Sisters (1901,) The Cherry Orchard (1904,) and Uncle Vanya (1896)—all these are now considered masterpiece dramas.
Chekhov also helped pioneer the modern short story form. He wrote over 600 stories before his death at age 44. He was one of the first short-story writers to explore characters instead of events. His stories lacked much of a plot. They did not have big emotional climaxes and typically concluded with a revelation of an intriguing feature of his characters’ lives.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Anton Chekhov
Michael Astroff says that forests are the ornaments of the earth, that they teach mankind to understand beauty and attune his mind to lofty sentiments. Forests temper a stern climate, and in countries where the climate is milder, less strength is wasted in the battle with nature, and the people are kind and gentle.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Wilderness
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
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
Topics: Perspective, Communication, Aspirations, Goals
Medvienko: Why do you always wear black? Masha: I am in mourning for my life. I am unhappy.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Unhappiness
People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Existence
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Trust
My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom.
—Anton Chekhov
Reason and justice tell me there’s more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.
—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
If you are afraid of loneliness, don’t marry.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Solitude
The university brings out all abilities including incapability.
—Anton Chekhov
Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.
—Anton Chekhov
We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.
—Anton Chekhov
You will not become a saint through other people’s sins.
—Anton Chekhov
The more refined one is, the more unhappy.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: One liners, Unhappiness
Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.
—Anton Chekhov
When an actor has money, he doesn’t send letters, but telegrams.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Acting, Actors
One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Failure, Success, Mistakes, Success & Failure
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Writing
Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?
—Anton Chekhov
There is nothing new in art except talent.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Talent
Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.
—Anton Chekhov
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
Topics: Apathy
A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer. He is a man who has signed a contract with his conscious and his sense of duty.
—Anton Chekhov
Men are made for happiness, and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: “I am doing God’s will on earth”.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Happiness
The leaves did not stir on the trees, grasshoppers chirruped, and the monotonous hollow sound of the sea rising up from below, spoke of the peace, of the eternal sleep awaiting us. So it must have sounded when there was no Yalta, no Oreanda here; so it sounds now, and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more. And in this constancy, in this complete indifference to the life and death of each of us, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, of unceasing progress towards perfection.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Perfection
The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.
—Anton Chekhov
People should be beautiful in every way – in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts and in their innermost selves.
—Anton Chekhov
There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Science
Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Action, Values, Knowledge
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