Quotes from Anton Chekhov

It is the writer's business not to accuse and not to prosecute, but to champion the guilty, once they are condemned and suffer punishment.

Advertising is the very essence of democracy.

To advise is not to compel.

When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where the soul is.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.

The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to.

Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.

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.

Faith is a capacity of the spirit. It is like talent: you have to be born with it

It always seems to the brothers and the father that their brother or son didn't marry the right person.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

What a fine weather today! Can't choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you're angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you're asked.

To regard one's immortality as an exchange of matter is as strange as predicting the future of a violin case once the expensive violin it held has broken and lost its worth.

All saints have past and all sinners have a future.

When a woman isn't beautiful, people always say, 'You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.'