Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.
Religion is never the problem it's the people who use it to gain power.
Desire is individual. Happiness is common.
If the choice is between doing something supercool and having no one hear it...
I had this really great amazing thing happen where I almost finished the book and I really needed to come up with an ending and I decided to go back and re-read the book and see if I could come up with an ending.