The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov Quotes

“the monotonous hollow sound of the sea rising up from below”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“So you believe in hypnotism?” said Father Andrey to Nina Ivanovna. “I cannot, of course, assert that I believe,” answered Nina Ivanovna, assuming a very serious, even severe, expression; “but I must own that there is much that is mysterious and incomprehensible in nature.” “I quite agree with you, though I must add that religion distinctly curtails for us the domain of the mysterious.” A big and very fat turkey was served. Father Andrey and Nina Ivanovna went on with their conversation. Nina Ivanovna’s diamonds glittered on her fingers, then tears began to glitter in her eyes, she grew excited. “Though I cannot venture to argue with you,” she said, “you must admit there are so many insoluble riddles in life!” “Not one, I assure you.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“the sonorous, joyful clang of the bells hung over the town from morning till night unceasingly, setting the spring air aquiver;”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“Through the wall Father Sisoy was snoring in the next room, and his aged snore had a sound that suggested loneliness, forlornness, even vagrancy.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“He was tormented by an intense desire to confide his memories to some one. But in his home it was impossible to talk of his love, and he had no one outside; he could not talk to his tenants nor to any one at the bank. And what had he to talk of? Had he been in love, then? Had there been anything beautiful, poetical, or edifying or simply interesting in his relations with Anna Sergeyevna? And there was nothing for him but to talk vaguely of love, of woman, and no one guessed what it meant; only his wife twitched her black eyebrows, and said: "The part of a lady-killer does not suit you at all, Dimitri.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free, and knew what to say to them and how to behave; and he was at ease with them even when he was silent. In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature, there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed them in his favour; he knew that, and some force seemed to draw him, too, to them.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“all men; in this life, even in the remotest desert, nothing is accidental, everything is full of one common idea, everything has one soul, one aim, and to understand it it is not enough to think, it is not enough to reason, one must have also, it seems, the gift of insight into life, a gift which is evidently not bestowed on all.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“May it do you good.... But my son is dead, mate.... Do you hear? This week in the hospital.... It’s a queer business....” Iona looks to see the effect produced by his words, but he sees nothing. The young man has covered his head over and is already asleep. The old man sighs and scratches himself.... Just as the young man had been thirsty for water, he thirsts for speech. His son will soon have been dead a week, and he has not really talked to anybody yet.... He wants to talk of it properly, with deliberation.... He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died.... He wants to describe the funeral, and how he went to the hospital to get his son’s clothes. He still has his daughter Anisya in the country.... And he wants to talk about her too.... Yes, he has plenty to talk about now. His listener ought to sigh and exclaim and lament.... It would be even better to talk to women. Though they are silly creatures, they blubber at the first word.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“She is getting on for twenty. . . .” I reflect. “If one takes a boy of the educated class and of that age and compares them, what a difference! The boy would have knowledge and convictions and some intelligence.” But I forgive that difference just as the low forehead and moving lips are forgiven. I remember in my old Lovelace days I have cast off women for a stain on their stockings, or for one foolish word, or for not cleaning their teeth, and now I forgive everything: the munching, the muddling about after the corkscrew, the slovenliness, the long talking about nothing that matters; I forgive it all almost unconsciously, with no effort of will, as though Sasha’s mistakes were my mistakes, and many things which would have made me wince in old days move me to tenderness and even rapture. The explanation of this forgiveness of everything lies in my love for Sasha, but what is the explanation of the love itself, I really don’t know.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“When they came out of the shop, Sasha and her mamma with scared and worried faces would discuss at length having made a mistake, having bought the wrong thing, the flowers in the chintz being too dark, and so on. Yes, it is a bore to be engaged! I’m glad it’s over. Now I am married.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

“the conceptions that he had inherited, together with his flesh and blood, from his ancestors, the tigers (vide Darwin).”
― Anton Chekhov, The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov