If you have a strong ego [and] something good happens to an acquaintance of yours, [it] makes you feel bad. It's called envy. . . . The ego thinks something has been taken away from you because somebody else has received something good. It's a complete illusion, but that's the madness of the ego.
The strong experience of nature. . . is the necessary basis for all conception of art on which rests the grandeur and beauty of all future work.