“You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don’t want to understand you.”
–from “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov
From “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov
Published
AuntyUta 
I like all of Chekhov’s books and quotes.
🙂
Chekhov is a master of short stories, but his attitude towards his characters is often tinged with irony, so one must be careful when quoting.
To be honest, Robert, I have no idea what “The Bet” story’s characters are like. Maybe some kind of irony is allowed when you think about it how people often take lies for truth and so on.