For every Shakespeare, Galileo, Bach or Newton this species has produced, we've also come up with at least a million actual or would-be Torquemadas.
I used to have Star Trek daydreams of humanity expanding out into the universe. Now I'm kind of hoping we don't. My ideal scenario is that the best we've done is preserved by some alien civiization in their museums and libraries and used to inform -- or caution -- some rather better beings that what we on balance are.