The Wife and Other Stories Quotes

“Any one who has lived in the country in winter and knows those long dreary, still evenings when even the dogs are too bored to bark and even the clocks seem weary of ticking, and any one who on such evenings has been troubled by awakening conscience and has moved restlessly about, trying now to smother his conscience, now to interpret it, will understand the distraction and the pleasure my wife's voice gave me as it sounded in the snug little room, telling me I was a bad man.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Wife, and Other Stories

“The hungry have a grievance against those who have enough, and those who have enough have a grievance against the hungry. Yes... hunger stupefies and maddens a man and makes him savage; hunger is not a potato. When a man is starving he uses bad language, and steals, and may do worse.... One must realize that.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Wife, and Other Stories

“There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people; that however happy he may be, life will show him her laws sooner or later, trouble will come for him”
― Anton Chekhov, The Wife, and Other Stories

“evidently the happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible”
― Anton Chekhov, The Wife, and Other Stories

“But we all have to die, you know. Death is not a potato.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Wife, and Other Stories