Dullard: Someone who looks up a thing in the encyclopedia, turns directly to the entry, reads it, and then closes the book. - Philip José Farmer

So here you are near the end of the world, savages, beings who, given the time, would build up a great civilization again. You don't have the time, and the long, long story, the many-eons tale of humankind, will end. For what reason? I don't know. The universe, looked at logically, is, despite all its intricate order and irresistible physical principles, senseless.

Experience was something it was difficult to avoid, though many people had managed to keep it to a minimum.

The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars but in our lousy genes. Or in the failure of one’s conquest of one’s self.
The fault, dear Brutus, is in our fear of knowing ourselves.