Anton Chekhov

'Look, I don't care a straw for life, but I am living!'

The predominance of reason over the heart is simply overwhelming amongst us. Direct feeling, inspiration--everything is choked by petty analysis. Where there is reasonableness there is coldness, and cold people--it's no use to disguise it--know nothing of chastity. That virtue is only known to those who are warm, affectionate, and capable of love.

Fortunately for men, women in love are always blinded by their feelings and never know anything of life

It is not a question of medicine and woods, my dear, he is a man of genius. Do you know what that means? It means he is brave, profound, and of clear insight. He plants a tree and his mind travels a thousand years into the future, and he sees visions of the happiness of the human race. People like him are rare and should be loved.

The Russian actor does not know how to be funny; he acts with profundity even in a farce.

I am still tempted to imagine that nature had some grand, marvellous design when she created that girl.

I was ashamed at the sight of the footmen, the coachmen, and the workmen who met us. It always seemed to me they were looking at me and thinking: “Why are you doing nothing?”

Their mothers and sisters mourned them as if they were dead, science treated them as an evil and men spoke to them with contempt. But for all this they had not lost the image and likeness of God. All of them acknowledged their sin and hoped to be saved – and the paths to salvation open to them were innumerable. It is true that society does not forgive people their past, but Mary Magdalene is no lower than other saints in the sight of God.

Vodka’s for drinking, sturgeon’s for eating, women for visiting and snow for walking over.

Sinning for the sake of magnificence, beauty, grace, passion, good taste – that I can understand. But this is something different. What’s worth sinning for in this place?