Anton Chekhov Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Knowledge, Technology, Practice

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Tired, Science, Night

  Letter to A. S. Suvorin, 11 Sept. 1888

• 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

  Funny, Humor, Doctors

  Ivanov I

• When all is said and done, no literature can outdo the cynicism of real life; you won't intoxicate with one glass someone who has already drunk up a whole barrel.

  Anton Chekhov

  Real, Glasses, Drunk

• The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.

  Anton Chekhov

  Literature, Incapability, University

• 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

  Heart, Thinking, Scary

  "In the Cart". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1897.

• 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

  Mean, Doe, Literature

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Fake People, Psychology, Doe

• There is nothing new in art except talent.

  Anton Chekhov

  Art, Genius, Literature

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Literature, Eccentric, Vodka

  "The Little Trilogy: The Man in a Case, Gooseberries, about Love". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1898.

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Beautiful, Eye, Hair

  Uncle Vanya act 3 (1897)

• 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

  Happiness, Thinking, Greed

  "Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

• I am writing a play which I probably will not finish until the end of November. I am writing it with considerable pleasure, though I sin frightfully against the conventions of the stage. It is a comedy with three female parts, six male, four acts, a landscape (view of the lake), lots of talk on literature, little action and tons of love.

  Anton Chekhov

  Love, Writing, Lakes

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Fire, Hatred, Literature

  "Uncle Vanya". Play by Anton Chekhov, 1897.

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Philosophy, Doe, Useless

• 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

  Ocean, Glasses, Two

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Life, Science, Vegetarianism

  "The wonder of Chekhov" by James Lasdun, www.theguardian.com. February 5, 2010.

• I agree that one can't dispense with the reins and the whip altogether, for knaves find their way even into literature, but no thinking will discover a better police for literature than the critics and the author's own conscience.

  Anton Chekhov

  Best Effort, Police, Criticism

  "Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends: With Biographical Sketch". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1920.

• To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.

  Anton Chekhov

  Drinking, Vocabulary, Cynical

  Letter to N.A. Leikin, December 24, 1886.

• Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job is towrite, and only to write.

  Anton Chekhov

  Jobs, Writing, Fate

  Letter to L.A. Avilova, April 27, 1899.

• But if you had asked him what his work was, he would look candidly and openly at you with his large bright eyes through his gold pincenez, and would answer in a soft, velvety, lisping baritone: "My work is literature."

  Anton Chekhov

  Work, Eye, Gold

  Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.1438, Delphi Classics

• Pharisaism, obtuseness and tyranny reign not only in the homes of merchants and in jails; I see it in science, in literature, and among youth. I consider any emblem or label a prejudice.... My holy of holies is the human body, health, intellect, talent, inspiration, love and the most absolute of freedoms, the freedom from force and falsity in whatever forms they might appear.

  Anton Chekhov

  Freedom, Inspiration, Home

  Letter to Alexei Pleshcheev, October 4, 1888.

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Literature, Easier

  Letter to A. S. Suvorin, January 2, 1894.

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

  Anton Chekhov

  Money, Actors, Literature

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

• There are people whom even children's literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in the Wisdom of Solomon.

  Anton Chekhov

  Children, People, Literature

  Letter to M.V. Kiseleva, January 14, 1887.

Page 1 of 2

← Prev

1

2

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin