Quote

To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist he must abandon the subjective line he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.

Anton Chekhov

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Must
Writer
Objective
Writing
Lines
Inherent
Good
Passion
Passions
Life
Evil
Abandon
Part
Objectives
Unclean
Earth
Landscape
Chemist
Nothing
Line
Respectable
Play
Ones
Subjective

More quotes by Anton Chekhov

Image
In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.
Anton Chekhov
Image
[In] death at least there would be one profit it would no longer be necessary to eat, to drink, to pay taxes, or to [offend] others and as a man lies in his grave not one year, but hundreds and thousands of years, the profit was enormous. The life of man was, in short, a loss, and only his death a profit.
Anton Chekhov
Image
I'm in mourning for my life.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Moscow is a city that has much suffering ahead of it.
Anton Chekhov
Image
The sea has neither meaning nor pity.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.
Anton Chekhov
Image
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.
Anton Chekhov
Image
The snow has not yet left the earth but spring is already asking to enter your heart.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Dear, sweet, unforgettable childhood! Why does this irrevocable time, forever departed, seem brighter, more festive and richer than it actually was?
Anton Chekhov
Image
Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Indeed, in Russia there is a terrible poverty of facts, and a terrible abundance of reflections of all sorts.
Anton Chekhov
Image
There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table what is national is no longer science.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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
Image
Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What amazing workers.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Everyone judges plays as if they were very easy to write. They don't know that it is hard to write a good play, and twice as hardand tortuous to write a bad one.
Anton Chekhov
Image
The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex. One should seekthe simple solution.
Anton Chekhov
Image
The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible.
Anton Chekhov