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Quotes by Dramatist
"Anna Petrovna: I am beginning to think, doctor, that fate has cheated me. The majority of people, who maybe are no better than I am, are happy and pay nothing for that happiness. I have paid for everything, absolutely everything! And how dearly! Why have I paid such terrible interest?"
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"What is there flattering, amusing, or edifying in their carving your name on a tombstone, then time rubbing off the inscription together with the gilding?"
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"To save a man and thereby to spare a father's agony and a mother's feelings is not to do a noble deed, it is but an act of humanity."
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"The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else."
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"A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave."
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"I know your head aches. I know you're tired. I know your nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher's window. But think what you're trying to accomplish - just think what you're dealing with. The majesty and grandeur of the English language; it's the greatest possession we have. The noblest thoughts that ever flowed through the hearts of men are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative and musical mixtures of sounds. And that's what you've set yourself out to conquer, Eliza. And conquer it you will."
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"I should fancy, however, that murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner."
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"Parentage is a very important profession but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interests of the Children."
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"The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault."
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"Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one's prejudices."
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"The only horrible thing in the world is ennui."
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"No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything."
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"The hope, and not the fact, of advancement, is the spur to industry."
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"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
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"As a rule, however fine and deep a phrase may be, it only affects the indifferent, and cannot fully satisfy those who are happy or unhappy; that is why dumbness is most often the highest expression of happiness or unhappiness; lovers understand each other better when they are silent, and a fervent, passionate speech delivered by the grave only touches outsiders, while to the widow and children of the dead man it seems cold and trivial."
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"The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable."
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"A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public are to him non-existent."
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"Flies purify the air, and plays--the morals."
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"I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."
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"How well I know you by your deeds and how invariably you succeed in living down to what one expects of you!"
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"And what does it mean -- dying? Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and only the five we know are lost at death, while the other ninety-five remain alive."
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"Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person."
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."
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"Always! That is the dreadful word ... it is a meaningless word too."
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"Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are."
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"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one."
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"There's some ill planet reigns:I must be patient till the heavens lookWith an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,I am not prone to weeping, as our sexCommonly are; the want of which vain dewPerchance shall dry your pities: but I haveThat honourable grief lodged here which burnsWorse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,With thoughts so qualified as your charitiesShall best instruct you, measure me; and soThe king's will be perform'd!"
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"Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong Hark! now I hear them,-Ding-dong, bell."
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"Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great."
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"The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever. Even if people employ actual violence, they are not to be violent in turn. That would be to fall to the same low level. After all, even in prison, a man can be quite free. His soul can be free. His personality can be untroubled. He can be at peace. And, above all things, they are not to interfere with other people or judge them in any way. Personality is a very mysterious thing. A man cannot always be estimated by what he does. He may keep the law, and yet be worthless. He may break the law, and yet be fine. He may be bad, without ever doing anything bad. He may commit a sin against society, and yet realize through that sin his true perfection."
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