A Commonplace Book

...he realized that not just any wish comes true here, but only your innermost wish. Not what would you holler at the top of your voice... Coming true here is only what's in line with your nature, with your essence, of which you know nothing. But it's there, in you, directing you all your life.... [W]hat he got was only money, and he couldn't get anything else, because render unto Porcupine the things that are Porcupine's! And things like conscience, anguish, they are just inventions.

Intelligence is the ability of a living creature to perform pointless or unnatural acts....

Well, how about the idea that humans, unlike animals, have an overpowering need for knowledge? I've read that somewhere."

"So have I," said Valentine. "But the issue is that man, at least the average man, can easily overcome this need. In my opinion, the need doesn't exist at all. There's a need to understand, but that doesn't require knowledge. The God hypothesis, for example, allows you to have an unparalleled understanding of absolutely everything while knowing absolutely nothing . . . Give a man a highly simplified model of the world and interpret every event on the basis of this simple model. This approach requires no knowledge. A few rote formulas, plus some so-called intuition, some so-called practical acumen, and some so-called common sense."