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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
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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
First
Pistol
Writing
Pistols
Fired
Hung
Otherwise
Following
Wall
Firsts
More quotes by Anton Chekhov
Children are holy and pure. Even those of bandits and crocodiles belong among the angels.... They must not be turned into a plaything of one's mood, first to be tenderly kissed, then rabidly stomped at.
Anton Chekhov
It is as acceptable now to love the wives of others as it is to smoke their cigars and read their books.
Anton Chekhov
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
Nothing better forges a bond of love, friendship or respect than common hatred toward something.
Anton Chekhov
Death can only be profitable: there's no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.
Anton Chekhov
The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible.
Anton Chekhov
There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.
Anton Chekhov
All the great sages are as despotic as generals, and as ignorant and as indelicate as generals, because they feel secure of impunity.
Anton Chekhov
A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.
Anton Chekhov
The critics suppose that it is easy to write a play. They aren't aware that writing a good play is difficult and writing a bad one is twice as hard.
Anton Chekhov
Never bring a cannon on stage in Act I unless you intend to fire it by the last act.
Anton Chekhov
I divide all literary works into two categories: Those I like and those I don't like. No other criterion exists for me.
Anton Chekhov
We live not in order to eat, but in order not to know what we feel like eating.
Anton Chekhov
It's not a matter of old or new forms a person writes without thinking about any forms, he writes because it flows freely from his soul.
Anton Chekhov
When asked, Why do you always wear black?, he said, I am mourning for my life.
Anton Chekhov
These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. Their teachers have been the birds themselves, when they sang to them, the sun when it left a glow of crimson behind it at setting, the very trees, and wild herbs.
Anton Chekhov
If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.
Anton Chekhov
People's destinies are so different. Some people drag along, unnoticed and boring—they're all alike, and they're all unhappy. Then there are others, like for instance you—you're one in a million. You're happy—
Anton Chekhov
I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
Anton Chekhov
Write only of what is important and eternal.
Anton Chekhov
