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
What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a mix of humor and despair, highlighting the absurdity of life choices.
Anton Chekhov's quote captures a moment of irony where the beauty of a fine day contrasts sharply with a feeling of hopelessness. It illustrates how one can feel overwhelmed by seemingly simple choices, hinting at deeper existential struggles while using humor as a coping mechanism.
In practice
During a humorous toast at a gathering, someone might share this quote to lighten the mood.
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.
There 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.
Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
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.
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.
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?
He'd heard that writers spent all day in their dressing gowns drinking champagne. This is, of course, absolutely true.
Golf acts as a corrective against sinful pride. I attribute the insane arrogance of the later Roman Emperors almost entirely to the fact that, never having played golf, they never knew that strange chastening humility which is engendered by a topped chip shot. If Cleopatra had been ousted in the first round of the Ladies' Singles, we should have heard a lot less of her proud imperiousness.
A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while the policeman searches you.
Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street-cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.
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