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What Must Human Beings Be, To Destroy What They Can Never Create?
-Anton Chekhov
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What Must Human Beings

Anton Chekhov
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What Must Human Beings Be, To Destroy What They Can Never Create?

Understanding the Quote: "what must human beings be, to destroy what they can never create?..."

This quote by Anton Chekhov reflects deeply on the theme of humans. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Humans, Human Beings, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Anton Chekhov interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov is celebrated for insightful thoughts on humans and human beings. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Humans
Human Beings
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Once A Man Gets A Fixed Idea, There's Nothing To Be Done.
Men
Ideas
Done
You Will Not Become A Saint Through Other People's Sins.
People
Saint
Sin
A Tree Is Beautiful, But What's More, It Has A Right To Life; Like Water, The Sun And The Stars, It Is Essential. Life On Earth Is Inconceivable Without Trees. Forests Create Climate, Climate Influences Peoples' Character, And So On And So Forth. There Can Be Neither Civilization Nor Happiness If Forests Crash Down Under The Axe, If The Climate Is Harsh And Severe, If People Are Also Harsh And Severe. ... What A Terrible Future!
Beautiful
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Try To Reason About Love, And You Will Lose Your Reason.
Trying
Reason
Loses
To Harbor Spiteful Feelings Against Ordinary People For Not Being Heroes Is Possible Only For Narrow-minded Or Embittered Man.
Hero
Men
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When All Is Said And Done, No Literature Can Outdo The Cynicism Of Real Life; You Won't Intoxicate With One Glass Someone Who Has Already Drunk Up A Whole Barrel.
Real
Glasses
Drunk
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.
People
May
Dignity
One Must Be A God To Be Able To Tell Successes From Failures Without Making A Mistake.
Success
Mistake
Failure
In All The Universe Nothing Remains Permanent And Unchanged But The Spirit.
Spirit
Remains
Permanent
Doctors Are Just The Same As Lawyers; The Only Difference Is That Lawyers Merely Rob You, Whereas Doctors Rob You And Kill You Too.
Funny
Humor
Doctors
In Order To Cultivate Yourself And To Drop No Lower Than The Level Of The Milieu In Which You Have Landed, It Is Not Enough To Read Pickwick And Memorize A Monologue From Faust... You Need To Work Continually Day And Night, To Read Ceaselessly, To Study, To Exercise Your Will... Each Hour Is Precious.
Exercise
Night
Order
Do You Remember You Shot A Seagull? A Man Came By Chance, Saw It And Destroyed It, Just To Pass The Time.
Time
Men
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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.
Punishment
Champion
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People Understand God As The Expression Of The Most Lofty Morality. Maybe He Needs Only Perfect People.
Expression
People
Perfect
Death Is Terrifying, But It Would Be Even More Terrifying To Find Out That You Are Going To Live Forever And Never Die.
Life
Death
Forever
Even While Lying, You'll Be Believed If You Speak With Authority.
Lying
Speak
Authority
One Usually Dislikes A Play While Writing It, But Afterward It Grows On One. Let Others Judge And Make Decisions.
Writing
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Judging
It's Immoral To Steal, But You Can Take Things.
Stealing
Immoral
Cross Out As Many Adjectives And Adverbs As You Can. ... It Is Comprehensible When I Write: "the Man Sat On The Grass," Because It Is Clear And Does Not Detain One's Attention. On The Other Hand, It Is Difficult To Figure Out And Hard On The Brain If I Write: "the Tall, Narrow-chested Man Of Medium Height And With A Red Beard Sat Down On The Green Grass That Had Already Been Trampled Down By The Pedestrians, Sat Down Silently, Looking Around Timidly And Fearfully." The Brain Can't Grasp All That At Once, And Art Must Be Grasped At Once, Instantaneously.
Art
Writing
Men
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 . . . One Must Ruthlessly Suppress Everything That Is Not Concerned With The Subject. If, In The First Chapter, You Say There Is A Gun Hanging On The Wall, You Should Make Quite Sure That It Is Going To Be Used Further On In The Story.
Wall
Lying
Gun
Without A Knowledge Of Languages You Feel As If You Don't Have A Passport.
Travel
Language
Passports
Be Sure Not To Discuss Your Hero's State Of Mind. Make It Clear From His Actions.
Hero
Mind
Action
We Go To Great Pains To Alter Life For The Happiness Of Our Descendants And Our Descendants Will Say As Usual: Things Used To Be So Much Better, Life Today Is Worse Than It Used To Be.
Life
Pain
Usual
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.
Character
Russia
Government
If An Intelligent, Educated, And Healthy Man Begins To Complain Of His Lot And Go Down-hill, There Is Nothing For Him To Do But To Go On Down Until He Reaches The Bottom--there Is No Hope For Him. Where Could My Salvation Come From? How Can I Save Myself? I Cannot Drink, Because It Makes My Head Ache. I Never Could Write Bad Poetry. I Cannot Pray For Strength And See Anything Lofty In The Languor Of My Soul. Laziness Is Laziness And Weakness Weakness. I Can Find No Other Names For Them. I Am Lost, I Am Lost; There Is No Doubt Of That.
Writing
Intelligent
Men
It Is Always "youth, Youth," When There Is Nothing Else To Be Said.
Youth
Said
Idea For A Short Story. The Shore Of A Lake, A Young Girl Who's Spent Her Whole Life Beside It, A Girl Like You She Loves The Lake The Way A Seagull Does, And She's Happy And Free As A Seagull. Then A Man Comes Along, Sees Her, And Ruins Her Life Because He Has Nothing Better To Do. Destroys Her Like This Seagull Here.
Girl
Men
Lakes
When A Person Is Born, He Can Embark On Only One Of Three Roads Of Life: If You Go Right, The Wolves Will Eat You; If You Go Left, You’ll Eat The Wolves; If You Go Straight, You’ll Eat Yourself.
Three
Born
Persons
We Learn About Life Not From Plusses Alone, But From Minuses As Well.
Literature
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If You Fear Loneliness, Then Don't Get Married.
Marriage
Fear
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When A Lot Of Remedies Are Suggested For A Disease, That Means It Can't Be Cured.
Pain
Mean
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The Role Of The Artist Is To Ask Questions, Not Answer Them.
Art
Roles
Answers
...and With A Burning Pain In My Heart I Realized How Unnecessary, How Petty, And How Deceptive All That Had Hindered Us From Loving Was. I Understood That When You Love You Must Either, In Your Reasonings About That Love, Start From What Is Highest, From What Is More Important Than Happiness Or Unhappiness, Sin Or Virtue In Their Accepted Meaning, Or You Must Not Reason At All.
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The Past,' He Thought, 'is Linked With The Present By An Unbroken Chain Of Events Flowing One Out Of Another.' And It Seemed To Him That He Had Just Seen Both Ends Of That Chain; That When He Touched One End The Other Quivered.
Past
Events
Unbroken
You Confuse Two Things: Solving A Problem And Stating A Problem Correctly. It Is Only The Second That Is Obligatory For An Artist.
Artist
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Once You've Married, Be Strict But Just With Your Wife, Don't Allow Her To Forget Herself, And When A Misunderstanding Arises, Say: "don't Forget That I Made You Happy.
Wife
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We Live Not In Order To Eat, But In Order Not To Know What We Feel Like Eating.
Order
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To Moscow, To Moscow, To Moscow!
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The Air Of One's Native Country Is The Most Healthy Air.
Country
Air
Healthy
Moscow Is A City That Has Much Suffering Ahead Of It.
Cities
Suffering
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It Is Time For Writers To Admit That Nothing In This World Makes Sense. Only Fools And Charlatans Think They Know And Understand Everything. The Stupider They Are, The Wider They Conceive Their Horizons To Be. And If An Artist Decides To Declare That He Understands Nothing Of What He Sees - This In Itself Constitutes A Considerable Clarity In The Realm Of Thought, And A Great Step Forward.
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My Mistress Has Come Home; At Last I've Seen Her. Now I'm Ready To Die.
Home
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Just As I Shall Lie Alone In The Grave, So, In Essence, Do I Live Alone.
Lying
Essence
Graves
In A Century Or Two, Or In A Millennium, People Will Live In A New Way, A Happier Way. We Won"t Be There To See It - But It"s Why We Live, Why We Work. It"s Why We Suffer. We"re Creating It. That"s The Purpose Of Our Existence. The Only Happiness We Can Know Is To Work Toward That Goal.
Two
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If You Can't Distinguish People From Lap-dogs, You Shouldn't Undertake Philanthropic Work.
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People Should Be Beautiful In Every Way - In Their Faces, In The Way They Dress, In Their Thoughts, And In Their Innermost Selves.
Beautiful
Self
People
It's Been A Long Time Since I've Had Champagne.
Long
Champagne
Long Time
We Shall Find Peace. We Shall Hear Angels, We Shall See The Sky Sparkling With Diamonds.
Peace
Inspiration
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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.
Sage
Impunity
My Holy Of Holies Is The Human Body.
Body
Holy
Pharisaism
You Must Trust And Believe In People Or Life Becomes Impossible.
Love
Family
Happiness
It Doesn't Matter That Your Painting Is Small. Kopecks Are Also Small, But When A Lot Are Put Together They Make A Ruble. Each Painting Displayed In A Gallery And Each Good Book That Makes It Into A Library, No Matter How Small They May Be, Serve A Great Cause: Accretion Of The National Wealth.
Book
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Library
In Western Europe People Perish From The Congestion And Stifling Closeness, But With Us It Is From The Spaciousness.... The Expanses Are So Great That The Little Man Hasn't The Resources To Orient Himself.... This Is What I Think About Russian Suicides.
Suicide
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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.
Men
Civilization
Privacy
That Can Not Possibly Be, Because It Could Never Possibly Be.
Can Not
Who Keeps The Tavern And Serves Up The Drinks? The Peasant. Who Squanders And Drinks Up Money Belonging To The Peasant Commune, The School, The Church? The Peasant. Who Would Steal From His Neighbor, Commit Arson, And Falsely Denounce Another For A Bottle Of Vodka? The Peasant.
Country
Drinking
School
Revolting Means For Good Ends Make The Ends Of Themselves Revolting.
Mean
Goal
Achieve
What Must Human Beings Be, To Destroy What They Can Never Create?
Humans
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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?
Funny
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Communication
When One Longs For A Drink, It Seems As Though One Could Drink A Whole Ocean-that Is Faith; But When One Begins To Drink, One Can Only Drink Altogether Two Glasses-that Is Science.
Faith
Ocean
Science
I Long To Embrace, To Include In My Own Short Life, All That Is Accessible To Man. I Long To Speak, To Read, To Wield A Hammer In A Great Factory, To Keep Watch At Sea, To Plow. I Want To Be Walking Along The Nevsky Prospect, Or In The Open Fields, Or On The Ocean - Wherever My Imagination Ranges.
Life
Ocean
Men
Advertising Is The Very Essence Of Democracy.
Essence
Democracy
Transcendentalism
The Leaves Did Not Stir On The Trees, Grasshoppers Chirruped, And The Monotonous Hollow Sound Of The Sea Rising Up From Below, Spoke Of The Peace, Of The Eternal Sleep Awaiting Us. So It Must Have Sounded When There Was No Yalta, No Oreanda Here; So It Sounds Now, And It Will Sound As Indifferently And Monotonously When We Are All No More. And In This Constancy, In This Complete Indifference To The Life And Death Of Each Of Us, There Lies Hid, Perhaps, A Pledge Of Our Eternal Salvation, Of The Unceasing Movement Of Life Upon Earth, Of Unceasing Progress Towards Perfection.
Lying
Sleep
Sea
In Displaying The Psychology Of Your Characters, Minute Particulars Are Essential. God Save Us From Vague Generalizations! Be Sure Not To Discuss Your Hero's State Of Mind. Make It Clear From His Actions. Nor Is It Necessary To Portray Many Main Characters. Let Two People Be The Center Of Gravity In Your Story: He And She.
Hero
Character
Two
You Are Right In Demanding That An Artist Should Take An Intelligent Attitude To His Work, But You Confuse Two Things: Solving A Problem And Stating A Problem Correctly.
Artist
Two
Different
What A Fine Weather Today! Can’t Choose Whether To Drink Tea Or To Hang Myself.
Funny
Sarcastic
Humorous
A Tree Is Beautiful, But What's More, It Has A Right To Life; Like Water, The Sun And The Stars, It Is Essential. Life On Earth Is Inconceivable Without Trees.
Beautiful
Stars
Water
How Unbearable At Times Are People Who Are Happy, People For Whom Everything Works Out.
Happiness
Frustration
People
If You Cry 'forward', You Must Without Fail Make Plain In What Direction To Go.
Cry
Failing
Ifs
Women Writers Should Write A Lot If They Want To Write. Take The English Women, For Example. What Amazing Workers.
Writing
Example
Want
If Our Life Has A Meaning, An Aim, It Has Nothing To Do With Our Personal Happiness, But Something Wiser And Greater.
Purpose
Aim
Wiser
The Desire To Serve The Common Good Must Without Fail Be A Requisite Of The Soul, A Necessity For Personal Happiness; If It Issuesnot From There, But From Theoretical Or Other Considerations, It Is Not At All The Same Thing.
Soul
Desire
Charity
Please, Understand That Your Life Is Bad And Dreary!
Life Is
Please
Dreary
If Only One Tooth Aches, Rejoice That Not All Of Them Ache.... If Your Wife Betrays You, Be Glad That She Betrayed Only You And Not The Nation.
Wife
Betrayed
Teeth
Instructing In Cures, Therapists Always Recommend That "each Case Be Individualized." If This Advice Is Followed, One Becomes Persuaded That Those Means Recommended In Textbooks As The Best, Means Perfectly Appropriate For The Template Case, Turn Out To Be Completely Unsuitable In Individual Cases.
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The Secret Of Boring People Lies In Telling Them Everything.
Lying
People
Boredom
It's Worth Living Abroad To Study Up On Genteel And Delicate Manners. The Maid Smiles Continuously; She Smiles Like A Duchess On A Stage, While At The Same Time It Is Clear From Her Face That She Is Exhausted From Overwork.
Maids
Faces
Exhausted
Everything Is Good In Due Measure And Strong Sensations Know Not Measure.
Strong
Knows
Dues
Better A Debauched Canary Than A Pious Wolf.
Canaries
Pious
It Is Not Only The Prisoners Who Grow Coarse And Hardened From Corporal Punishment, But Those As Well Who Perpetrate The Act Or Are Present To Witness It.
Math
Punishment
Coarse
A Writer Is Not A Confectioner, A Cosmetic Dealer, Or An Entertainer.
Cosmetics
Dealer
Entertainers
Death Can Only Be Profitable: There's No Need To Eat, Drink, Pay Taxes, Offend People, And Since A Person Lies In A Grave For Hundreds Or Thousands Of Years, If You Count It Up The Profit Turns Out To Be Enormous.
Lying
Years
People
Anna Petrovna (to Shabelsky): You Can't Make A Simple Joke Without An Injection Of Venom. You Are A Poisonous Man. Joking Apart, Count, You're Very Poisonous. It's Hideously Boring To Live With You. You're Always Grumpy, Complaining, You Find Everyone Bad, Good For Nothing. Tell Me Frankly, Count, Did You Ever Speak Well Of Anyone?
Simple
Men
Complaining
Why Are We Worn Out? Why Do We, Who Start Out So Passionate, Brave, Noble, Believing, Become Totally Bankrupt By The Age Of Thirty Or Thirty-five? Why Is It That One Is Extinguished By Consumption, Another Puts A Bullet In His Head, A Third Seeks Oblivion In Vodka, Cards, A Fourth, In Order To Stifle Fear And Anguish, Cynically Tramples Underfoot The Portrait Of His Pure, Beautiful Youth? Why Is It That, Once Fallen, We Do Not Try To Rise, And, Having Lost One Thing, We Do Not Seek Another? Why?
Beautiful
Believe
Lost Ones
When A Woman Isn't Beautiful, People Always Say, 'you Have Lovely Eyes, You Have Lovely Hair.'
Beautiful
Eye
Hair
Oh, Dreams! In One Night, Lying With One's Eyes Shut, One May Sometimes Live Through More Than Ten Years Of Happiness.
Happiness
Dream
Lying
A Writer Should Not So Much Write As Embroider On Paper; The Work Should Be Painstaking, Laborious.
Writing
Paper
Should
If You Say In The First Chapter That There Is A Rifle Hanging On The Wall, In The Second Or Third Chapter It Absolutely Must Go Off. If It's Not Going To Be Fired, It Shouldn't Be Hanging There.
Wall
Writing
Rifles
And It Is The Way With Us That You May Express Disapproval Of The Sun Or The Moon, Or Anything You Like, But God Preserve You From Touching The Liberals! Heaven Forbid!
Moon
Heaven
Touching
Man Has Been Endowed With Reason, With The Power To Create, So That He Can Add To What He's Been Given.
Inspirational
Men
Wild Life
Whoever Sincerely Believes That Elevated And Distant Goals Are As Little Use To Man As A Cow, That "all Of Our Problems" Come Fromsuch Goals, Is Left To Eat, Drink, Sleep, Or, When He Gets Sick Of That, To Run Up To A Chest And Smash His Forehead On Its Corner.
Running
Believe
Sleep
I Would Like To Be A Free Artist And Nothing Else, And I Regret God Has Not Given Me The Strength To Be One.
Regret
Artist
Given
To Advise Is Not To Compel.
Advise
Only During Hard Times Do People Come To Understand How Difficult It Is To Be Master Of Their Feelings And Thoughts.
Hard Times
People
Feelings
Those Who Come A Hundred Or Two Hundred Years After Us Will Despise Us For Having Lived Our Lives So Stupidly And Tastelessly. Perhaps They'll Find A Means To Be Happy.
Happiness
Happy
Mean
I Observed That After Marriage People Cease To Be Curious.
People
Curious
Cease
A Grimy Fly Can Soil The Entire Wall And A Small, Dirty Little Act Can Ruin The Entire Proceedings.
Wall
Dirty
Ruins
If Ever My Life Can Be Of Any Use To You, Come And Claim It.
Use
Claims
Ifs
An Artist Must Only Judge Of What He Understands, His Field Is Just As Limited As That Of Any Other Specialist... That In His Sphere There Are No Questions, But Only Answers, Can Only Be Maintained By Those Who Have Never Written And Have Had No Experience Of Thinking In Images.
Artist
Criticism
Answers
When A Man Fails To Understand Something He Is Conscious Of A Discord, And Seeks For The Cause Of It Not In Himself, As He Should, But Outside Himself - Hence The War With What He Does Not Understand.
War
Should
Discord
It's Not A Matter Of Old Or New Forms; A Person Writes Without Thinking About Any Forms, He Writes Because It Flows Freely From His Soul.
Writing
Thinking
Soul
The Critics Suppose That It Is Easy To Write A Play. They Aren't Aware That Writing A Good Play Is Difficult And Writing A Bad One Is Twice As Hard.
Writing
Play
Theatre
I Expect I Shall Be A Student To The End Of My Days.
Learning
Students
Ends
I Often Wonder: Suppose We Could Begin Life Over Again, Knowing What We Were Doing? Suppose We Could Use One Life, Already Ended, As A Sort Of Rough Draft For Another? I Think That Every One Of Us Would Try, More Than Anything Else, Not To Repeat Himself, At The Very Least He Would Rearrange His Manner Of Life, He Would Make Sure Of Rooms Like These, With Flowers And Light ... I Have A Wife And Two Daughters, My Wife's Health Is Delicate And So On And So On, And If I Had To Begin Life All Over Again I Would Not Marry. ... No, No!
Daughter
Flower
Thinking
In My Head There Is A Whole Army Of People Asking To Be Let Out And Waiting For The Word Of Command.
Army
People
Literature
Can Words Such As Orthodox, Jew, Or Catholic Really Express Some Sort Of Exclusive Personal Virtues Or Merits?
Catholic
Merit
Virtue
Great Jove Angry Is No Longer Jove.
Angry
Any Idiot Can Face A Crisis - It's Day To Day Living That Wears You Out.
Life
Success
Morning
If Many Remedies Are Prescribed For An Illness You Can Be Sure It Has No Cure
Illness
Cures
Remedy
Lermontov Died At Age Twenty-eight And Wrote More Than Have You And I Put Together. Talent Is Recognizable Not Only By Quality, But Also By The Quantity It Yields.
Yield
Eight
Age
Even In Siberia There Is Happiness.
Siberia
Fine. Since The Tea Is Not Forthcoming, Let's Have A Philosophical Conversation.
Philosophical
Tea
Conversation
I Think That It Would Be Less Difficult To Live Eternally Than To Be Deprived Of Sleep Throughout Life.
Sleep
Thinking
Would Be
If In The First Act You Introduce A Gun, By The Third Act You Have To Use It.
Gun
Use
Firsts
Anyone Who Says The Artist's Field Is All Answers And No Questions Has Never Done Any Writing Or Had Any Dealings With Imageryyou Are Confusing Two Concepts: Answering The Questions And Formulating Them Correctly. Only The Latter Is Required Of An Author.
Writing
Artist
Two
Wherever There Is Degeneration And Apathy, There Also Is Sexual Perversion, Cold Depravity, Miscarriage, Premature Old Age, Grumbling Youth, There Is A Decline In The Arts, Indifference To Science, And Injustice In All Its Forms.
Art
Miscarriage
Grumbling
Only One Who Loves Can Remember So Well.
Remember
Wells
Love, Respect, And Friendship Do Unite A People As Well As A Common Hatred Does.
People
Hatred
Doe
There Will Come A Time When Everybody Will Know Why, For What Purpose, There Is All This Suffering, And There Will Be No More Mysteries. But Now We Must Live ... We Must Work, Just Work!
Suffering
Purpose
Mystery
The World Perishes Not From Bandits And Fires, But From Hatred, Hostility, And All These Petty Squabbles.
Fire
Hatred
Literature
Perhaps Man Has A Hundred Senses, And When He Dies The Five Senses That We Know Perish With Him, And The Other Ninety-five Remain Alive... Everything That Is Unattainable For Us Now Will One Day Be Near And Clear... But We Must Work.
Men
One Day
Five Senses
Perhaps The Feelings That We Experience When We Are In Love Represent A Normal State. Being In Love Shows A Person Who He Should Be.
Love
Feelings
Self Improvement
The Government Is Not God. It Does Not Have The Right To Take Away That Which It Can't Return Even If It Wants To.
Government
Doe
Want
I Can't Accept "our Nervous Age," Since Mankind Has Been Nervous During Every Age. Whoever Fears Nervousness Should Turn Into A Sturgeon Or Smelt; If A Sturgeon Makes A Stupid Mistake, It Can Only Be One: To End Up On A Hook, And Then In A Pan In A Pastry Shell.
Stupid
Mistake
Age
Solomon Made A Big Mistake When He Asked For Wisdom.
Wisdom
Mistake
Made
You Only Have To Start A Job Of Work To Realize How Few Decent, Honest Folk There Are About.
Inspirational
Jobs
Honest
Let The Things That Happen On The Stage Be Just As Complex And Yet Just As Simple As They Are In Life. For Instance, People Are Having A Meal, Just Having A Meal, But At The Same Time Their Happiness Is Being Created, Or Their Lives Are Being Smashed Up.
Simple
People
Meals
Of Course Politics Is An Interesting And Engrossing Thing. It Offers No Immutable Laws, Nearly Always Prevaricates, But As Far Asblather And Sharpening The Mind Go, It Provides Inexhaustible Material.
Law
Interesting
Mind
It's Easier To Write About Socrates Than About A Young Woman Or A Cook.
Writing
Literature
Easier
I Think Human Beings Must Have Faith Or Must Look For Faith, Otherwise Our Life Is Empty, Empty. To Live And Not To Know Why The Cranes Fly, Why Children Are Born, Why There Are Stars In The Sky. You Must Know Why You Are Alive, Or Else Everything Is Nonsense, Just Blowing In The Wind.
Stars
Children
Thinking
I'm In Mourning For My Life.
Mourning
Don't Tell Me The Moon Is Shining; Show Me The Glint Of Light On Broken Glass.
Inspirational
Writing
Moon
An Artist Observes, Selects, Guesses, And Synthesizes.
Art
Artist
To Judge Between Good Or Bad, Between Successful And Unsuccessful Would Take The Eye Of A God.
Eye
Successful
Judging
No Psychologist Should Pretend To Understand What He Does Not Understand... Only Fools And Charlatans Know Everything And Understand Nothing.
Fake People
Psychology
Doe
To Describe Drunkenness For The Colorful Vocabulary Is Rather Cynical. There Is Nothing Easier Than To Capitalize On Drunkards.
Drinking
Vocabulary
Cynical
There Is Nothing New In Art Except Talent.
Art
Genius
Literature
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.
Men
Land
Wild Life
Not One Of Our Mortal Gauges Is Suitable For Evaluating Non-existence, For Making Judgments About That Which Is Not A Person.
Afterlife
Soul
Gauges
Critics Are Like Horse-flies Which Hinder The Horses In Their Plowing Of The Soil. The Horse Works, All Its Muscles Drawn Tight Like The Strings On A Double-bass, And A Fly Settles On His Flanks And Tickles And Buzzes. And What Does The Fly Buzz About? It Scarcely Knows Itself; Simply Because It Is Restless And Wants To Proclaim: 'look, I Too Am Living On The Earth. See, I Can Buzz, Too, Buzz About Anything.'
Horse
Double Bass
Doe
If I Were Asked To Chose Between Execution And Life In Prison I Would, Of Course, Chose The Latter. It's Better To Live Somehow Than Not At All.
Execution
Prison
Capital Punishment
When You Want To Touch The Reader's Heart, Try To Be Colder. It Gives Their Grief As It Were, A Background, Against Which It Stands Out In Greater Relief.
Grief
Heart
Giving
We All Have Too Many Wheels, Screws And Valves To Judge Each Other On First Impressions Or One Or Two Pointers. I Don't Understand You, You Don't Understand Me And We Don't Understand Ourselves.
Two
Judging
First Impression
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.
Love
Writing
Lakes
Desription Should Be Very Brief And Have An Incidental Nature.
Should
These People Have Learned Not From Books, But In The Fields, In The Wood, On The River Bank. Their Teachers Have Been The Birds Themselves, When They Sang To Them, The Sun When It Left A Glow Of Crimson Behind It At Setting, The Very Trees, And Wild Herbs.
Teacher
Book
Rivers
Love Is A Scandal Of The Personal Sort.
Love
Love Is
Scandal
One Must Not Put A Loaded Rifle On The Stage If No One Is Thinking Of Firing It.
Thinking
Rifles
Stage
But At The Same Time, In Reality, What A Difference There Is Between The World Today, And What It Used To Be! And With The Passage Of More Time, Some Two Or Three Hundred Years, Say, People Will Look Back At Our Own Times With Horror, Or With Sneering Laughter, Because All Of Our Present Day Life Will Appear So Clumsy, And Burdensome, Extraordinarily Inept And Strange. Yes, Certainly, What A Life It Will Be Then, What A Life!
Laughter
Reality
Years
I Am Dying. I Haven't Drunk Champagne For A Long Time.
Time
Long
Drunk
I Promise To Be A Splendid Husband, But Give Me A Wife Who, Like The Moon, Won't In My Sky Every Day...
Husband
Moon
Sky
A Hungry Dog Believes In Nothing But Meat.
Dog
Believe
Meat
God's World Is A Good Place. The One Thing Not Good In It Is We. How Little Justice And Humility There Is In Us. How Little We Understand True Patriotism!
Humility
Justice
Patriotism
..when One Has No Real Life, One Lives By Mirages. It's Still Better Than Nothing.
Real
Mirages
Live By
If I Wanted To Order A Ring For Myself, The Inscription I Should Choose Would Be: "nothing Passes Away." I Believe That Nothing Passes Away Without Leaving A Trace, And That Every Step We Take, However Small, Has Significance For Our Present And Our Future Existence.
Believe
Order
Leaving
You Look At Any Poetic Creature: Muslin, Ether, Demigoddess, Millions Of Delights; Then You Look Into The Soul And Find The Most Ordinary Crocodile!
Soul
Ordinary
Looks
A Naive Man Is Nothing Better Than A Fool. But You Women Contrive To Be Naive In Such A Way That In You It Seems Sweet, And Gentle, And Proper, And Not As Silly As It Really Is.
Sweet
Silly
Men
Not Only After Two Or Three Centuries, But In A Million Years, Life Will Still Be As It Was; Life Does Not Change, It Remains For Ever, Following Its Own Laws Which Do Not Concern Us, Or Which, At Any Rate, You Will Never Find Out. Migrant Birds, Cranes For Example, Fly And Fly, And Whatever Thoughts, High Or Low, Enter Their Heads, They Will Still Fly And Not Know Why Or Where. They Fly And Will Continue To Fly, Whatever Philosophers Come To Life Among Them; They May Philosophize As Much As They Like, Only They Will Fly.
Years
Law
Two
Is It Our Job To Judge? The Gendarme, Policemen And Bureaucrats Have Been Especially Prepared By Fate For That Job. Our Job Is Towrite, And Only To Write.
Jobs
Writing
Fate
Your Talent Sets You Apart: If You Were A Toad Or A Tarantula, Even Then, People Would Respect You, For To Talent All Things Are Forgiven.
People
Toads
Tarantulas
The More Simply We Look At Ticklish Questions, The More Placid Will Be Our Lives And Relationships.
Looks
Ticklish
Placid
I Was Oppressed With A Sense Of Vague Discontent And Dissatisfaction With My Own Life, Which Was Passing So Quickly And Uninterestingly, And I Kept Thinking It Would Be A Good Thing If I Could Tear My Heart Out Of My Breast, That Heart Which Had Grown So Weary Of Life.
Heart
Thinking
Tears
Probably Nature Itself Gave Man The Ability To Lie So That In Difficult And Tense Moments He Could Protect His Nest, Just As Do The Vixen And Wild Duck.
Lying
Men
Ducks
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.
Beautiful
Sports
Class
A Person Loves To Talk About His Illnesses Although That Is The Least Interesting Part Of His Life.
Medicine
Interesting
Illness
Everything On Earth Is Beautiful, Everything -- Except What We Ourselves Think And Do When We Forget The Higher Purposes Of Life And Our Own Human Dignity.
Beauty
Beautiful
Nature
In Displaying The Psychology Of Your Characters, Minute Particulars Are Essential. God Save Us From Vague Generalizations!
Character
Psychology
Essentials
I Do Not Know Why One Should Not Hunt Two Hares Even In The Literal Sense....
Determination
Hunting
Two
Watching A Woman Make Russian Pancakes, You Might Think That She Was Calling On The Spirits Or Extracting From The Batter The Philosopher's Stone.
Thinking
Calling
Stones
Reason And Justice Tell Me There's More Love For Humanity In Electricity And Steam Than In Chastity And Vegetarianism.
Life
Science
Vegetarianism
Neither I Nor Anyone Else Knows What A Standard Is. We All Recognize A Dishonorable Act, But Have No Idea What Honor Is.
Ideas
Honor
Standards
I've Noticed That People Who Get Married Cease To Be Curious.
Marriage
People
Curiosity
The Snow Has Not Yet Left The Earth But Spring Is Already Asking To Enter Your Heart.
Spring
Heart
Snow
Dear And Most Respected Bookcase! I Welcome Your Existence, Which Has For Over One Hundred Years Been Devoted To The Radiant Ideals Of Goodness And Justice.
Years
Justice
Welcome
In Two Or Three Hundred Years Life On Earth Will Be Unimaginably Beautiful, Astounding. Man Needs Such A Life And If It Hasn't Yetappeared, He Should Begin To Anticipate It, Wait For It, Dream About It, Prepare For It. To Achieve This, He Has To See And Know More Than Did His Grandfather And Father.
Change
Beautiful
Dream
When A Person Expends The Least Amount Of Motion On One Action, That Is Grace.
Grace
Action
Persons
Isolation In Creative Work Is An Onerous Thing. Better To Have Negative Criticism Than Nothing At All.
Creative
Criticism
Negative
There Are Plenty Of Good People, But Only A Very, Very Few Are Precise And Disciplined.
Discipline
People
Plenty
Sometimes We Go To A Play And After The Curtain Has Been Up Five Minutes We Have A Sense Of Being Able To Settle Back In The Arms Of The Playwright. Instinctively We Know That The Playwright Knows His Business.
Play
Theatre
Arms
Nothing Can Be Accomplished By Logic And Ethics.
Logic
Ethics
Accomplished
A Woman Is Fascinated Not By Art But By The Noise Made By Those In The Field.
Art
Noise
Fields
It Is Depressing To Hear The Unfortunate Or Dying Man Jest.
Death
Depressing
Men
By Nature Servile, People Attempt At First Glance To Find Signs Of Good Breeding In The Appearance Of Those Who Occupy More Exalted Stations.
People
Firsts
Appearance
The Time Has Come For Writers, Especially Those Who Are Artists, To Admit That In This World One Cannot Make Anything Out, Just As Socrates Once Admitted It, Just As Voltaire Admitted It.
Time
Artist
Justice
There Is Nothing More Awful, Insulting, And Depressing Than Banality.
Being Yourself
Depressing
Insulting
There Is No National Science, Just As There Is No National Multiplication Table; What Is National Is No Longer Science.
Science
Tables
Mathematics
Exquisite Nature, Daydreams, And Music Say One Thing, Real Life Another.
Real
Daydreaming
Exquisite
Flies Purify The Air, And Plays - The Morals.
Air
Play
Moral
One Had Better Not Rush, Otherwise Dung Comes Out Rather Than Creative Work.
Creative
Creative Work
Wisdom.... Comes Not From Age, But From Education And Learning.
Inspirational
Education
Age
In One-act Pieces There Should Be Only Rubbish - That Is Their Strength.
Pieces
Rubbish
Should
When You Live On Cash, You Understand The Limits Of The World Around Which You Navigate Each Day. Credit Leads Into A Desert With Invisible Boundaries.
Each Day
World
Cash
There Are In Life Conjunctions Of Circumstances When The Reproach That We Are Not Voltaires Is Least Of All Appropriate.
Circumstances
Confluence
Reproach
Faith Is A Capacity Of The Spirit. It Is Like Talent: You Have To Be Born With It
Spirit
Talent
Born
Life Is Difficult For Those Who Have The Daring To First Set Out On An Unknown Road. The Avant-garde Always Has A Bad Time Of It.
Avant Garde
Firsts
Life Is
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.
Appreciation
Nature
Adversity
Nothing Lulls And Inebriates Like Money; When You Have A Lot, The World Seems A Better Place Than It Actually Is.
Money
World
Better Place
People Are Far More Sincere And Good-humored At Speeding Their Parting Guests Than On Meeting Them.
People
House Guests
Sincere
I Don't Like Being Successful; The Subjects Which Sit In My Head Are Annoyed And Jealous Of What Has Already Been Written.
Success
Ideas
Annoyed
Write, Write, Write-till Your Fingers Break.
Writing
Break
Fingers
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