If our life has a meaning, an aim, it has nothing to do with our personal happiness, but something wiser and greater.
Anton ChekhovA good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.
Anton ChekhovWhen describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader will see an image in his mind after he closes his eyes. For instance: you will capture the truth of a moonlit night if you'll write that a gleam like starlight shone from the pieces of a broken bottle, and then the dark, plump shadow of a dog or wolf appeared. You will bring life to nature only if you don't shrink from similes that liken its activities to those of humankind.
Anton ChekhovI feel more confident and more satisfied when I reflect that I have two professions and not one. Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress. When I get tired of one I spend the night with the other. Though it's disorderly it's not so dull, and besides, neither really loses anything, through my infidelity.
Anton Chekhov