Anton Chekhov Quote From Uncle Vanya
Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove
and destroy that which he cannot make?
Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may
increase that which has been given him, but until now
he has not created, but demolished.
The forests are disappearing, the rivers are running dry,
the game is exterminated, the climate is spoiled,
and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day.
An excerpt from the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov published in 1889.
[Taken from the Gutenberg Project translation from Russian to English by Marian Fell in 1913].
This originally started as a post solely for this quote (as I think it is very evocative) but upon realising the quotes relevance not only to UK and worldwide stances on how people live on and with the earth, but specifically with the rate of deforestation in Anton Chekhov’s home country of Russian I feel I should expand. Learn more here: http://www-pub.naz.edu:9000/~jwitten2/about2.htm