People don’t seem to rob bookstores much, more’s the pity for them. - Sheri S. Tepper

Once we’re grown, all we can hear are what the poet described: the echoes, dying.

"Well, why didn't the silly Bloomians think of that?"
"Religion, I imagine, friend Chance. Religion serves to prevent thought in many cases, and I'd say it had done so here. They started with the presumption that anything as complex as the mill must exist for a good reason. Then they spent all their time inventing a good reason—and some god to be responsible for it—rather than looking for a sensible solution to their problem."

I suspect there’s little difference between whim and inspiration at the beginning of any chain of events. It’s what happens later that tells us which is which.