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Never bring a cannon on stage in Act I unless you intend to fire it by the last act.

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
Last
Cannon
Never
Cannons
Intend
Unless
Bring
Stage
Fire
Lasts

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Every coming year is as bad as the previous one, the only difference being that in most cases it is even worse.
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I was so drunk the whole time that I took bottles for girls and girls for bottles.
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A person loves to talk about his illnesses although that is the least interesting part of his life.
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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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Useless pursuits and conversations always about the same things absorb the better part of one's time, the better part of one's strength, and in the end there is left a life grovelling and curtailed, worthless and trivial, and there is no escaping or getting away from it—just as though one were in a madhouse or prison.
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If you cry ''Forward'' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely opposite directions?
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The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.
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When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights but if one looks into the soul -- it's nothing but a common crocodile.
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For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.
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There are no small number of people in this world who, solitary by nature, always try to go back into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.
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To Moscow, to Moscow, to Moscow!
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All the great sages are as despotic as generals, and as ignorant and as indelicate as generals, because they feel secure of impunity.
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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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If our life has a meaning, an aim, it has nothing to do with our personal happiness, but something wiser and greater.
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No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.
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In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.
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To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
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Sports are positively essential. It is healthy to engage in sports, they are beautiful and liberal, liberal in the sense that nothing serves quite as well to integrate social classes, etc., than street or public games.
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I should think I'm going to be a perpetual student.
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