# Quote — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

> Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability. Adaptations that an intelligent species may make in a single generation, other species make over many generations of selective breeding and selective dying. Yet intelligence is demanding. If it is misdirected by accident or by intent, it can foster its own orgies of breeding and dying.

- Author: [Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md)
- Book: [Parable of the Sower](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower.md)
- Page: 29
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/intelligence-is-ongoing

## More from this book

> The Destiny of Earthseed
>
> Is to take root among the stars.

p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/the-destiny-of-earthseed.md)

> All that you touch
>
> You Change.
>
> All that you Change
>
> Changes you.
>
> The only lasting truth
>
> Is Change.
>
> God
>
> Is Change.

p. 3 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/all-that-you.md)

> Freedom is dangerous, Cory, but it’s precious, too. You can’t just throw it away or let it slip away. You can’t sell it for bread and pottage.

p. 122 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/freedom-is-dangerous.md)