One of the advantages of travelling the world is that you get to know the world broadly. And one of the advantages of staying in one place is that you get to know the world deeply.
Our environments shape the way we see ourselves. If you have been condemned to live in an area that is pretty evidently a rat-run, then sooner or later you're gonna come to the conclusion that you're a rat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our surroundings influence our self-perception, shaping who we believe we are.
Alan Moore's quote explores the profound impact that our environments have on our identity and self-image. When individuals are placed in harsh or degrading environments, such as a 'rat-run', it can lead them to internalize negative perceptions and see themselves in a diminished light. This reflects a broader commentary on how societal conditions can affect mentalities and behaviors, often trapping people in cycles of self-fulfilling prophecies based on their surroundings.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social issues, this quote by Alan Moore can highlight the importance of community environment in shaping identity.
More from Alan Moore
All quotes →The only reality we can ever truly know is that of our perceptions, our own consciousness, while that consciousness, and thus our entire reality, is made of nothing but signs and symbols. Nothing but language. Even God requires language before conceiving the Universe. See Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word.
My main point about films is that I don't like the adaptation process, and I particularly don't like the modern way of comic book-film adaptations, where, essentially, the central characters are just franchises that can be worked endlessly to no apparent point.
The magician to some degree is trying to drive him or herself mad in a controlled setting, within controlled laws.
When I was working upon the ABC books, I wanted to show different ways that mainstream comics could viably have gone, that they didn't have to follow 'Watchmen' and the other 1980s books down this relentlessly dark route. It was never my intention to start a trend for darkness. I'm not a particularly dark individual.
Love your rage, not your cage.
Similar quotes
[God] is perfect not only insofar as He is absolute perfection, defining perfection in Himself and from His singular existence and total perfection, but also because He is far beyond being so. He sets a boundary to the boundless and in His total unity He rises above all limitation. He is neither contained nor comprehended by anything. He reaches out to everything and beyond everything and does so with unfailing generosity and unstinted activity.
Just because you believe in something does not mean that it is true.
This moment - the one you're experiencing right now - is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is.
You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.
Tilting his head back he slowly released an enormous quantity of smoke from his mouth and drew it up through his nostrils. He continued to smoke in this "French-inhale" style. Very probably, it was not part of the sofa vaudeville of a showoff but, rather, the private, exposed achievement of a young man who, at one time or another, might have tried shaving himself left-handed.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.