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Post 0

Saturday, January 14, 2006 - 9:45am

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Most excellent George. This is not from one of Chekhov's plays or short stories.

Curiously it derives, indirectly, from Tolstoy. Taking up Tolstoy’s 'meatless' cause, a moralist Nikolaj Leskov went to great lengths to defend the vegetarian way of life, despite his ridicule from a hostile Russian press. In a letter to the editor Suvorin, Leskov advised him not to eat meat. "It was necessary to transfigure this world into a paradise, into a garden cultivated by God," he wrote.

Chekhov and had gone through a period of interest in Tolstoy's ideas, but he was a doctor and not a vegetarian. He wrote a letter to Suvorin which contains your quote: "Reflection and justice tell me that in electricity and steam power there is more love for mankind than in chastity and abstinence from meat."

Post 1

Saturday, January 27, 2007 - 7:05am

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This was so compelling that I had to follow the citations. Here are just a few. The quote is widely cited. I find interesting the vernacular American "there's" and other minor indications of construction that hint at something more subtle in the original Russian. Someday, I would like to post an article about the psycho-epistemology of grammar. Cases, tenses, voices, and the rest all serve to enable thought. I believe that people with poor grammar are poor thinkers. -- Mike M.

In Chehov's library a vegetarian cook-book was found, with notes from his hand. Chekhov was a doctor, but he was not a vegetarian. He had gone through a period of interest in Tolstoy's ideas. But, in 1894 he wrote in a letter to Suvorin a sentence which has been quoted very often: "Reflection and justice tell me that in electricity and steam power there is more love for mankind than in chastity and abstinence from meat.'
Even without Pineapples: Vegetarianism in Russian Life and Literature By Peter Brang
from European Vegetarian, Issue 2/3 - 2000
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/evu/english/news/news002/russia.html

Quote:
Prudence and justice tell me that in electricity and steam there is more love for man than in chastity and abstinence from meat.
Author: Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
Categories: mankind; electricity; vegetarianism
Attribution: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904), Russian author, playwright. Letter, March 27, 1894, to his editor and friend, A.S. Suvorin. Complete Works and Letters in Thirty Volumes, Letters, vol. 5, p. 284, “Nauka” (1977).
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/quotations/quote/21753

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.
Anton Chekhov --
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/antonchekh108299.html

Anton P. Chekhov, MD (1860-1904): Dual Medical and Literary Careers... Chekhov observed that``rationality and truth tell me that in electricity and steam there is more love for man than in chastity and vegetarianism. ...
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Online Full Text
Anton P. Chekhov, MD (1860–1904): Dual Medical and Literary Careers
Carter Ann Thorac Surg.1996; 61: 1557-1563
http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/61/5/1557

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.
Anton Chekhov
January quote
SEMPPES South East Michigan Power Plant Engineers’ Society
January 2007 Volume IX: Issue I
http://www.semppes.com

Cited letter to Suvorin, March 1894.
Was Cexov a Tolstoyan?
Josephine M. Newcombe
The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp. 143-152 doi:10.2307/306173
via JSTOR

(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 1/27, 7:08am)