Quotes by Anton Chekhov

"The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected."

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

"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day."

"I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, will not appear every day in my sky."

"Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too."

"When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science."

"No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing."

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

"Advertising is the very essence of democracy."

"If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry."

"A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does."

"The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles."

"People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about."

"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other."

"Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too."

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."

"You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible."

"We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."

"Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit."