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

Anton Chekhov

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Anton Chekhov
Age: 44 †
Born: 1860
Born: January 1
Died: 1904
Died: January 1
Author
Dramaturge
Journalist
Novelist
Physician
Playwright
Prosaist
Satirist
Writer
Tahanroh
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Antón Pávlovič Čéhov
Antón Pávlovich Chékhov
Chekhov
Agree
Philosophy
Literature
Happiness
Doe
Life
Pleasurable
Idleness
Useless

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It's easier to ask for money from the poor than from the wealthy.
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Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions.
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Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.
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I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
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It's immoral to steal, but you can take things.
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Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.
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The time's come: there's a terrific thunder-cloud advancing upon us, a mighty storm is coming to freshen us up....It's going to blow away all this idleness and indifference, and prejudice against work....I'm going to work, and in twenty-five or thirty years' time every man and woman will be working.
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Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one's dignity.
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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.
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How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.
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You look boldly ahead isn't it only that you don't see or divine anything terrible in the future because life is still hidden from your young eyes.
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He is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.
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It seems to me that all of the evil in life comes from idleness, boredom, and psychic emptiness, but all of that is inevitable when you become accustomed to living at others' expense.
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A litterateur is not a confectioner, not a dealer in cosmetics, not an entertainer. . . . He is just like an ordinary reporter. What would you say if a newspaper reporter, because of his fastidiousness or from a wish to give pleasure to his readers, were to describe only honest mayors, high-minded ladies, and virtuous railroad contractors.
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He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.
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Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics.
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He who doesn't know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable to enjoy others' successes, and such a person should never be entrusted with public affairs.
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Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.
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My love is like a stone tied round my neck it's dragging me down to the bottom but I love my stone. I can't live without it.
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When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where the soul is.
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