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Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

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
Debauched
Canary
Canaries
Pious
Wolf
Better

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Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics.
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You confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for an artist.
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I don't like being successful the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.
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I divide all literary works into two categories: Those I like and those I don't like. No other criterion exists for me.
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A man can deceive his fiancee or his mistress as much as he likes and, in the eyes of a woman he loves, an ass may pass for a philosopher. But a daughter is a different matter.
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The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
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If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It's better to live somehow than not at all.
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One usually dislikes a play while writing it, but afterward it grows on one. Let others judge and make decisions.
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Faith is a capacity of the spirit. It is like talent: you have to be born with it
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I confess I seldom commune with my conscience when I write.
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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.
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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.
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Everything is good in due measure and strong sensations know not measure.
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Eyes - the head's chief of police. They watch and make mental notes.
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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—
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I have no will of my own. Never did. Limp and lily-livered, I always obey - is it possible that's attractive to women?
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It is a bad thing if a writer tackles a subject he does not understand.
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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...
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The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.
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I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
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