# Anton Chekhov's most famous quotes

Chekhov's aphorisms from his letters, notebooks, plays and stories, each with its source. Based on Russian Wikiquote.

- 0 votes · 12 items
- Sep 3, 2024 · Мария Макарова
- https://even.best/en/l/1796/anton-chekhov-s-most-famous-quotes

## Top 12

1. **Brevity is the sister of talent.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Letter to his brother Alexander, 11 April 1889.
2. **Everything in a person should be beautiful: face, clothes, soul and thoughts.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Astrov in «Uncle Vanya», Act II.
3. **Good breeding isn't not spilling sauce on the tablecloth, but not noticing when someone else does.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The story «The House with the Mezzanine».
4. **One must be clear in mind, pure in morals and tidy in body.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
5. **University develops all abilities, including stupidity.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
6. **If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
7. **There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
8. **It's good where we are not: we are no longer in the past, so it seems beautiful.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
9. **A man will become better when you show him what he is like.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.
10. **Better badly acted Shakespeare than boring nothing.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Article «Hamlet at the Pushkin Theatre» (1882).
11. **Beware of refined language. Language should be simple and elegant.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Letter to his brother Alexander, 8 May 1889.
12. **Whoever can't win by kindness won't win by severity either.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Notebooks.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.