a point
all my life of mistrusting all doctors, lawyers, and women. They are
shammers and deceivers.

LEBEDIEFF. [To SHABELSKI] You are an extraordinary person, Matthew! You
have mounted this misanthropic hobby of yours, and you ride it through
thick and thin like a lunatic You are a man like any other, and yet,
from the way you talk one would imagine that you had the pip, or a cold
in the head.

SHABELSKI. Would you have me go about kissing every rascal and scoundrel
I meet?

LEBEDIEFF. Where do you find all these rascals and scoundrels?

SHABELSKI. Of course I am not talking of any one here present,
nevertheless-----

LEBEDIEFF. There you are again with your "nevertheless." All this is
simply a fancy of yours.

SHABELSKI. A fancy? It is lucky for you that you have no knowledge of
the world!

LEBEDIEFF. My knowledge of the world is this: I must sit here prepared
at any moment to have death come knocking at the door. That is my
knowledge of the world. At our age, brother, you and I can't afford to
worry about knowledge of the world. So then--[He calls] Oh, Gabriel!

SHABELSKI. You have had quite enough already. Look at your nose.

LEBEDIEFF. No matter, old boy. I am not going to be married to-day.

ZINAIDA. Doctor Lvoff has not been here for a long time. He seems to
have forgotten us.

SASHA. That man is one of my aversions. I can't stand his icy sense of
honour. He can't ask for a glass of water or smoke a cigarette without
making a display of his remarkable honesty. Walking and talking, it is
written on his brow: "I am an honest man." He is a great bore.

SHABELSKI. He is a narrow-minded, conceited medico. [Angrily] He shrieks
like a parrot at every step: "Make way for honest endeavour!" and thinks
himself another St. Francis. Everybody is a rascal who doesn't make as
much noise as he does. As for his penetration, it is simply remarkable!
If a peasant is well off and lives decently, he sees at once that he
must be a thief and a scoundrel. If I wear a velvet coat and am dressed
by my valet, I am a rascal and the valet is my slave. There is no place
in this world for a man like him. I am actually afraid of him. Yes,
indeed, he is likely, out of a sense of duty, to insult a man at any
moment and to call him a knave.

IVANOFF. I am dreadfully tired of him, but I can't help liking him, too,
he is so sincere.

SHABELSKI. Oh, yes, his sincerity is beautiful! He came up to me
yesterday evening and remarked