Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

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

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Action, Values, Knowledge

Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.
—Anton Chekhov

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: One liners, Unhappiness

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

Only entropy comes easy.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Adversity

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Trust

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

The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.
—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

If you are afraid of loneliness, don’t marry.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Solitude

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

When an actor has money, he doesn’t send letters, but telegrams.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Acting, Actors

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

Don’t you see, if only I could live the rest of my life in some new way! If I could only wake some still, bright morning and feel that life had begun again; that the past was forgotten and had vanished like smoke. Oh, to begin life anew! Tell me, tell me how to begin.
—Anton Chekhov

Man is what he believes.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Belief, Positive Attitudes, Optimism, Thought, Thinking, Thoughts, Believe

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

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

Posterity will say as usual: “In the past things were better, the present is worse than the past”.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: The Past

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
Topics: Lawyers, Doctors

There is nothing new in art except talent.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Talent

To advise is not to compel.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Advice

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

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

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

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Existence

My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom.
—Anton Chekhov

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Summer, Happiness

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can’t be cured.
—Anton Chekhov
Topics: Medicine

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *