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

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.
Anton Chekhov

No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith.
Anton Chekhov

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

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.
Anton Chekhov

Only entropy comes easy.
Anton Chekhov

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

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

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.
Anton Chekhov

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.
Anton Chekhov

The only difference between doctors and lawyers is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you, too.
Anton Chekhov

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.
Anton Chekhov

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.
Anton Chekhov

The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.
Anton Chekhov

The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on; science and art are as well.
Anton Chekhov

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

There is nothing new in art except talent.
Anton Chekhov

To advise is not to compel.
Anton Chekhov

To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God.
Anton Chekhov

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.
Anton Chekhov