Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [1314]

Reduction of prices, better sanitation in the cities … all this is very good. … I can imagine an excellent newspaper article on these topics (an article that will be forgotten the next day). But I find it difficult to imagine a wort by Lev Tolstoy or Remain Rolland based on improvement of sanitation. — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 1314

Note

The contrast between ephemeral municipal improvements and enduring art is sharpened by the dryly dismissive parenthesis about a forgotten newspaper article.