On the benefits of folly
Thus it appears those arts are most blessed which have the closest affinity with stupidity, and those people are happiest who have been able to avoid contanct with the arts and sciences altogether, simply following nature which never fails them except when they try to reach beyond the proper bounds of their human nature. False faces are odious to nature, and a man gets ahead much faster if he does without artifice (34).
So it is among all men, those are farthest from felicity who strive most earnestly for wisdom, showing themselves double fools, first as they are born men, and then because they have forgotten that basic condition, and like the giants make war on nature with the machinery of their learning. By contrast, those men seem least wretched who come closest to the condition and intelligence of beasts, and never try to rise above thier human status (35).
