Frases de Antón Chéjov

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“Los infelices son egoístas, injustos, crueles e incapaces de comprender al otro. Los infelices no unen a las personas, las separan.”

“La felicidad no existe. Lo único que existe es el deseo de ser feliz.”

“El gobierno no es Dios. No tiene derecho a quitar lo que no puede regresar.”

“No hay nada más terrible, insultante y deprimente que la banalidad.”

“Si realmente reflexionas, todo es maravilloso en este mundo, todo, excepto nuestros pensamientos y acciones cuando nos olvidamos de reflexionar.”

“A la gente le encanta hablar de sus enfermedades, a pesar de que son las cosas menos interesantes de sus vidas.”

“Hay algo hermoso, poético y conmovedor cuando una persona ama más que el otro, y el otro es indiferente.”

“La fe es una aptitud del espíritu. Es, de hecho, un talento: se tiene que nacer con ella.”

“Cuando pienso en mi vocación no temo a la vida.”

“Si lo que uno hace desagrada a otro, eso no significa que la acción sea mala. Así son las cosas. Cualquier paso serio de uno debe desagradar forzosamente a algún otro. Si tú fueras a combatir por la libertad, también esto haría sufrir a tu madre ¡Qué le vamos a hacer! Quien coloca por encima de todo la tranquilidad de sus allegados debe renunciar por completo a una vida guiada por las ideas.”

“El mar no tiene ni sentido ni piedad.”

“Es fácil conquistar al que piensa que está conquistado.”

“Los hipócritas pretenden ser palomas, políticos, literarios, águilas… Pero no se deje engañar por su apariencia, no son águilas, son ratas.”

“Cualquiera que sea el tema de la conversación, un viejo soldado hablará siempre de guerra.”

“El arte de escribir consiste en decir mucho con pocas palabras.”

“Hay que hablar de cosas serias en serio.”

“Los hombres inteligentes quieren aprender; los demás, enseñar.”

“Del mismo modo que estaré solo en mi tumba, vivo esencialmente solo.”

“El amor es un escándalo de tipo personal.”

“Encontraremos paz. Escucharemos ángeles. Veremos el cielo centelleando con diamantes.”

“He observado que después del matrimonio las personas dejan de ser curiosas.”

“La obras de arte se dividen en dos categorías: las que me gustan y las que no me gustan. No conozco ningún otro criterio.”

“Aislarse en el trabajo creativo es mejor que las críticas negativas que no hacen nada en absoluto.”

“Confieso que enterrar a gente como Belikov constituye un gran placer.”

“Cuando se sugieren muchos remedios para un solo mal, quiere decir que no se puede curar.”

“El hombre vulgar espera lo bueno o lo malo del exterior, el hombre que piensa lo espera de sí mismo.”

“El mundo no perece por los bandidos y los incendios, sino por el odio, la hostilidad, y todas estas pequeñas rencillas.”

“El que nada constantemente en el mar ama la tierra firme.”

“En la naturaleza, una repugnante oruga se transforma en una mariposa encantadora; en cambio, entre los hombres ocurre lo contrario: una encantadora mariposa se transforma en una oruga repugnante.”

“Es algo malo para el escritor asumir lo que no entiende.”

“La brevedad es la hermana del talento.”

“La literatura es mi esposa legítima y la medicina mi amante. Cuando me canso de una, paso la noche con la otra.”

“Las personas que viven solas siempre tienen algo en sus mentes que comparten voluntariamente.”

“Más vale un canario perverso que un piadoso lobo.”

“No puede ser hermoso lo que es grave.”

“La medicina es mi esposa y la literatura mi amante. Cuando me canso de una, paso la noche con la otra. Y sé que es desordenado, pero no es aburrido, y ninguna de ellas pierde nada por mi infidelidad.”

“I have in my head a whole army of people pleading to be let out and awaiting my commands.”

“People love talking of their diseases, although they are the most uninteresting things in their lives.”

“Narrative prose is a legal wife, while drama is a posturing, boisterous, cheeky and wearisome mistress.”

“I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a word be put in about my book…. One feels cleaner this way. When someone asks that his book be reviewed he risks running up against a vulgarity offensive to authorial sensibilities.”

“If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It’s better to live somehow than not at all.”

“Dear, sweet, unforgettable childhood! Why does this irrevocable time, forever departed, seem brighter, more festive and richer than it actually was?”

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.”

“Not everyone knows when to be silent and when to go. It not infrequently happens that even diplomatic persons of good worldly breeding fail to observe that their presence is arousing a feeling akin to hatred in their exhausted or busy host, and that this feeling is being concealed with an effort and disguised with a lie.”

“Watching a woman make Russian pancakes, you might think that she was calling on the spirits or extracting from the batter the philosopher’s stone.”

“You ask “What is life?” That is the same as asking “What is a carrot?” A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more.”

“I don’t know why one can’t chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of those words. If you have the hounds, go ahead and pursue.”

“One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they’ll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.”

“The more elevated a culture, the richer its language. The number of words and their combinations depends directly on a sum of conceptions and ideas; without the latter there can be no understandings, no definitions, and, as a result, no reason to enrich a language.”

“I’m in mourning for my life.”

“By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations.”

“Our self-esteem and conceit are European, but our culture and actions are Asiatic.”

“If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache…. If your wife betrays you, be glad that she betrayed only you and not the nation.”

“Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.”

“I don’t care for success. The ideas sitting in my head are annoyed by, and envious of, that which I’ve already written.”

“Everyone has the same God; only people differ.”

“Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.”

“Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one’s dignity.”

“It has become customary to say that a man needs only six feet of land. But a corpse needs six feet, not a person.”

“When a person is born, he can embark on only one of three roads of life: if you go right, the wolves will eat you; if you go left, you’ll eat the wolves; if you go straight, you’ll eat yourself.”

“In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, astounding. Man needs such a life and if it hasn’t yet appeared, he should begin to anticipate it, wait for it, dream about it, prepare for it. To achieve this, he has to see and know more than did his grandfather and father.”

“Lermontov died at age twenty-eight and wrote more than have you and I put together. Talent is recognizable not only by quality, but also by the quantity it yields.”

“Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant.”

“It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.”

“What seems to us serious, significant and important will, in future times, be forgotten or won’t seem important at all.”