Quotes from Chekhov's stories

Anton Chekhov
"A Boring Story" excerpts

p.56 "My other enemy is within me. This is the endless variety of forms, phenomena, and laws, and the great multitude of thoughts, my own and those of others, which arise from them. Every moment I must be able to extract from this enormous mass of material what is most important and necessary, and I must do it as quickly as I talk."

p. 72 "I have grown accustomed to resisting outside influences. . .but on the weak, on my wife and Lisa, unsteeled as they were, all this has fallen like an avalanche and crushed them."

p. 79 " His opinions are always harsh and abusive, but his gentle, smooth, and jocular tone somehow prevents his harshness and abusiveness from grating on the ears."

p. 92 "You didn't struggle against evil, you got tired, and you're the victim of your own weakness, not of the struggle"



Anton Chekhov
"Ariadne" excerpt

p. 192 "Already there was a demon in her who whispered day and night t hat she was a ravishing, divine creature."

Anton Chekhov
"The House with an Attic" excerpts

p.224 "The whole horror of their situation is that they have no time to think of their souls, no time to remember that they've been created in the image of God."

p.225 "Every man's vocation lies in spiritual activity, in the constant search for truth and the meaning of life."

p.226 "All our intelligence, all our spiritual energy is spent on the satisfaction of temporary and transient needs."