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.

A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples' character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe. ... What a terrible future!

The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early spring.

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

Here I am with you & yet not for a single moment do I forget that there's an unfinished novel waiting for me.

It is easier to ask of the poor than of the rich.

There is nothing more vulgar than a petty bourgeois life with its halfpence, its victuals, its futile talk, and its useless conventional virtue.