One might not lose the knowledge one finds, but I think it's entirely feasible to lose the desire to keep looking. I've heard plenty of older adults talk about how they just don't have the energy or fire they had when they were younger - regardless of what the energy's for.
Hence asking the question. If you were one of them, you could tell me what went wrong, so that I could avoid it.
Love went wrong. When I had no hopes of finding love and contentment, I was dedicated to the fight against reality. When they
came, I made a bargain with my lady. The bargain failed, and though she hasn't scorned me since, my own commitment has been
far less than it should be. Even the pain of losing my wife (the second such loss that mattered? Or maybe the third?), though it
threw me into a frenzy of activity, sent me into usually searching for more realistic goals. If one succumbs to the pleasures of this
world, it becomes harder to search for the purity of a better one.
As for the cell - I don't think it counts, if it's forced on you, unless you're talking about the ambiguous self-inflicted forcing you so love.
No, it wouldn't be an act of will itself - but the separation from all that might distract me would eventually drive me into the realms
that I seek; or so I hope. But, despair wasn't enough, so perhaps I would just masturbate in my own filth, as I do anyway.
In all seriousness, it makes more sense for women to have mutliple husbands, than it does for men to have multiple wives. Do the math.
Depends on the type of math that you like. Personally, I find hole-oriented math too weak a concept.