Anton Chekhov

"I know that good deeds do not cure the soul."

"The fear of death often proves greater than death itself."

"In real life people are not always good; real people are complex."

"The more a writer strives to be universal, the more he becomes individual."

"To different minds, the same world is a hell and a paradise."

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

"All things flow and nothing abides; all is subjected to a process of becoming."

"The question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

"Simplicity is what comes at the end of long labor."

"If you cry 'forward', you must make plain in what direction to go forward."

"Mysticism is the child of meditation."

"I want the truth but I don't want to hear it."

"The greatest tragedy is not death but a life lived for nothing."

"One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off."

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

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

"When a man is in love, he is incapable of judging anything, even the object of his love."

"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress."

"If you cry 'Forward!' you must make sure that you are not going backward."

"Ignorance is not bliss; it is oblivion."

"Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out."

"We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."

"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself."

"If you wish to be a writer, write."

"Lack of loyalty is one of the principal causes of the ruin of states."

"Beauty in nature is not just about aesthetics; it teaches us about truth."

"A man can live without religion, but not without hope."

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

"The happy life of any man is always unknown, and therefore not worthy of envy."

"In old age, we realize that true friends are more valuable than all the wealth in the world."