# Quote — Robert Shea, The Illuminatus! Trilogy

> That was a simple riddle used by Zen Masters in the training of monks, Joe remembered. You take a newborn gosling and slip it through the neck of a bottle. Month after month you keep it in there and feed it, until it is a fullgrown goose and can no longer be passed through the bottles neck. The question is: Without breaking the bottle, how do you get the goose out?

- 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/that-was-a-simple

## 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)