The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

There are a great many opinions in this world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble." (The Mill)

Even in Siberia there is happiness.

Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would be like that with me. That if I died I would still be part of life in one way or another.

Man will become better when you show him what he is like.

If my life can ever be of any use to you, come and take it.

Three o'clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking at my windows and caressingly winking at me with its stars. I can't sleep, I am so happy.

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.

Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics.

Only one who loves can remember so well.

They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.

Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions." (Letter to Alexander Chekhov, May 10, 1886)

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

MEDVIEDENKO Why do you always wear mourning? MASHA I dress in black to match my life. I am unhappy.

Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

And what does it mean -- dying? Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and only the five we know are lost at death, while the other ninety-five remain alive.

It's very hard, feeling that you're no more than a piece of unwanted furniture in this world.

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured.

This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.

I kept thinking how marvellous it would be if I could somehow tear my heart, which felt so heavy, out of my chest.

And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life.

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

Here I am with you & yet not for a single moment do I forget that there's an unfinished novel waiting for me.

Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let's have a philosophical conversation.

..when one has no real life, one lives by mirages. It's still better than nothing.

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!

I feel like a donkey, with a stick in my mouth and a carrot up my ass.

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

I should think I'm going to be a perpetual student.

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.

I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses.

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.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

To harbor spiteful feelings against ordinary people for not being heroes is possible only for narrow-minded or embittered man.

What must human beings be, to destroy what they can never create?

For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch.

They say, tell me what you've read and I'll tell you who you are.

He is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

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.

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.

Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years

My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom--freedom from violence and falsehood, no matter how the last two manifest themselves.

There is no greater sorrow than to know another's secret when you cannot help them.

She had a passionate longing for the garden, the darkness, the pure sky, the stars.

Shabelsky: Doctors are the same as lawyers, the sole difference being that lawyers only rob you, but doctors rob you and kill you too...

Men are made for happiness, and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: “I am doing God’s will on earth.

I have no will of my own. Never did. Limp and lily-livered, I always obey - is it possible that's attractive to women?

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