If one basic axiom controls the cosmos, it must be this: In a situation of infinity every possible condition occurs, not once, but an infinite number… - Jack Vance

“Intelligence” demands the most strict of definitions, since the word is easily and often abused. Intelligence rates the quality of Gaean man’s competence at altering environment to suit his convenience, or, more generally, the solution of problems. The corollaries to the idea are several. Among them: In the absence of problems, intelligence cannot be measured. A creature with a large, complicated brain is not necessarily intelligent. Raw abstract intelligence is a meaningless concept.

Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!

“And this is Uther Madduc’s ‘wonderful joke’?”
“So I believe.”
“But what’s funny?”
“The magnificent ability of the human race to delude itself.”