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
Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Common hatred can bind people together more effectively than love or friendship.
This quote by Anton Chekhov highlights the paradoxical nature of human relationships, suggesting that negative emotions like hatred can create stronger bonds among individuals than positive feelings such as love and friendship. It implies that when people share a common adversary or disdain for something, their unity is fortified, even if it's based on negativity rather than mutual respect or affection.
Themes
HatredUnityRelationshipsFriendshipNegativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could resonate during a discussion about social movements that unite people against a common cause.
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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Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
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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.
Anton ChekhovRead
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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