A quest for knowledge is always beneficial. The quest (act of seeking), knowledge (the state of understanding gained through experience), and beneficial (conducive to personal well-being) are all benign terms that do not suggest the wanton passion of a raving scientist named Frankenstein. This poor excuse for a human rarely willingly acknowledges his fellow beings as such. He instead refers to homo sapiens as either "creature" or "animal." Victor does not seek knowledge, rather he seeks to further seperate himself, who he sees as a superior individual, from the rest of mankind. He sees the pursuit of knowledge as the pastime of children, as he abandons this endeavor early after his adolescence to seek not power (which is knowledge), but the satisfaction of his desire to compensate for the misery created by his "misfortunes." Frankenstein does not have the strength to pursue knowledge. One who accepts this "quest" means that they do no more than acquire the understanding necessary to advance further into the dark mess of the unexplored. Whether this is referring to that which is unexplored on a personal or universal level is non consequential. Great mental determination is needed in either case to simply attain this knowledge and not implement it or experiment with it. This is where Frankenstein strays. Experimentation is almost always a necessary part of the quest, but it is always beneficial. Victor does well to explore this area, but cannot resist the need to go further. Therefore the quest is beneficial, but the uneeded exploration with the knowledge attained in the quest is detrimental.