# Quote — Robert Shea, The Illuminatus! Trilogy

> April 24 - Objectivity is presumably the opposite of schizophrenia. Which means that it is nothing but acceptance of everybody else's notion of reality. But nobody's perception of reality is the same as everybody's notion of it, which means that the most objective person is the real schizophrenic. It is hard to get beyond the accepted beliefs of one's own age. The first man to think a new thought advances it very tentatively. New ideas have to be around a while before anyone will promote them hard. In their first form, they are like tiny, imperceptible mutations that may eventually lead to new species. That's why cultural cross-fertilization is so important. It increases the gene-pool of the imagination. The Arabs, say, have one part of the puzzle. The Franks another. So, when the Knights Templar meet the Hashishin, something new is born. The human race has always lived more or less happily in the kingdom of the blind. But there is an elephant among us. A one-eyed elephant.

- Author: [Robert Shea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea.md)
- Book: [The Illuminatus! Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/april-24-objectivity

## More from this book

> "You look blank, Joe," said Malaclypse. "Has no one explained to you that the human race is divided into two distinct genotypes - neophobes, who reject new ideas and accept only what they have known all their lives, and neophiles, who love new things, change, invention, innovation? For the first four million years of man's history, all humans were neophobes, which is why civilization did not develop. Animals are all neophobes. Only mutation can change them. Instinct is simply the natural behavior of a neophobe. The neophile mutation appeared about a hundred thousand years ago, and speeded up thirty thousand years ago. However, there has never been more than a handful of neophiles anywhere on the planet. The Illuminati themselves sprang from one of the oldest neophile-neophobe conflicts on record."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/you-look-blank.md)

> Only the madman is ever sure.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/only-the-madman.md)

> THINK FOR YOURSELF, SCHMUCK!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/think-for-yourself.md)