It's easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.
We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.
What's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country; the people have no morals; and the boredom!
All saints have past and all sinners have a future.
There are plenty of good people, but only a very, very few are precise and disciplined.
You are right in demanding that an artist approach his work consciously, but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist.