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.
Anton ChekhovRead
The more refined one is, the more unhappy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that greater refinement or sophistication can lead to increased dissatisfaction.
Anton Chekhov's quote reflects the idea that as individuals become more discerning and cultivated, they may develop higher expectations and greater awareness of life's imperfections, resulting in a deeper sense of unhappiness. It implies that simplicity and acceptance can often lead to greater contentment than the pursuit of refinement and perfection.
Themes
RefinementUnhappinessSophisticationExpectationsContentment
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical discussion on happiness at a social gathering.
More from Anton Chekhov
All quotes βThere are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments , but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.
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To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.
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When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief.
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Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?
Anton ChekhovRead
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