Blake isn't endorsing hedonism but rather suggesting that wisdom sometimes demands we venture beyond the safe middle ground—that certain truths reveal themselves only to those willing to push past comfortable moderation. Most of us assume excess and wisdom are enemies, yet Blake proposes they're unlikely companions, partners in a journey where extremity becomes the very teacher we need. When a musician practices obsessively until their fingers bleed, or a scientist works through the night chasing a half-formed idea, they're traveling that road—and if they survive it with their faculties intact, they've earned something genuine that the merely cautious never will.