Note-Book of Anton Chekhov Part 16

[Footnote 1: _Glavizna_ in Russian is the name of a fish and also means beginning; the root of the verbs "to behead" and "to flog" are the same.]

A journalist wrote lies in the newspaper, but he thought he was writing the truth.

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

He himself is rich, but his mother is in the workhouse.

He married, furnished a house, bought a writing-table, got everything in order, but found he had nothing to write.

Faust: "What you don't know is just what you want; what you know is what you can't use."

Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority.

As I shall lie in the grave alone, so in fact I live alone.

A German: "Lord have mercy on us, _grieshniki_."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Grieshniki_ means "sinners," but sounds like _grietchnieviki_ which means "buckwheat cakes."]

"O my dear little pimple!" said the bride tenderly. The bridegroom thought for a while, then felt hurt--they parted.

They were mineral water bottles with preserved cherries in them.

An actress who spoilt all her parts by very bad acting--and this continued all her life long until she died. n.o.body liked her; she ruined all the best parts; and yet she went on acting until she was seventy.

He alone is all right and can repent who feels himself to be wrong.

The archdeacon curses the "doubters," and they stand in the choir and sing anathema to themselves (Skitalez).

He imagined that his wife lay with her legs cut off and that he nursed her in order to save his soul....

Madame Snuffley.

The black-beetles have left the house; the house will be burnt down.

"Dmitri, the Pretender, and Actors." "Turgenev and the Tigers."

Articles like that can be and are written.

A t.i.tle: Lemon Peel.

I am your legitimate husband.

An abortion, because while birthing a wave struck her, a wave of the ocean; because of the eruption of Vesuvius.

It seems to me: the sea and myself--and nothing else.

Education: his three-year-old son wore a black frock-coat, boots, and waistcoat.

With pride: "I'm not of Yuriev, but of Dorpat University."[1]

[Footnote 1: Yuriev is the Russian name of the town Dorpat.]