Quote

If you can't distinguish people from lap-dogs, you shouldn't undertake philanthropic work.

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
Lap
Distinguish
Dogs
Shouldn
Charity
Dog
Work
Philanthropic
People
Undertake

More quotes by 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
Life is a vexatious trap when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no escape.
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
I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.
Anton Chekhov
Image
To harbor spiteful feelings against ordinary people for not being heroes is possible only for narrow-minded or embittered man.
Anton Chekhov
Image
You confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for an artist.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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
Image
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...
Anton Chekhov
Image
The people I am afraid of are the ones who look for tendentiousness between the lines and are determined to see me as either liberal or conservative. I am neither liberal, nor conservative, nor gradualist, nor monk, nor indifferentist. I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be 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 wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early spring.
Anton Chekhov
Image
From here, far away, people seem very good, and that is natural, for in going away into the country we are not hiding from people but from our vanity, which in town among people is unjust and active beyond measure.
Anton Chekhov
Image
A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.
Anton Chekhov
Image
You will not become a saint through other people's sins.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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.
Anton Chekhov
Image
What's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country the people have no morals and the boredom!
Anton Chekhov
Image
Even while lying, you'll be believed if you speak with authority.
Anton Chekhov
Image
If you want to work on your art, work on your life.
Anton Chekhov
Image
I kept thinking how marvellous it would be if I could somehow tear my heart, which felt so heavy, out of my chest.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Better to perish from fools than to accept praises from them.
Anton Chekhov