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

Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and when he dies only the five senses that we know perish with him, and the other ninety-five remain alive.

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

The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life.

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.

Wisdom.... comes not from age, but from education and learning.

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.

If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry.

Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other

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

Man is what he believes.

There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked.

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.

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

To fear love is to fear life, and those whose fear life are already three parts dead...

There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.

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.