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.
The Rudderless World is not shaped by vague metaphysical Forces. It is not God who kills the Children. Not Fate that butchers them or Destiny that feeds them to the Dogs. ... It´s us. Only us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes human responsibility for the real-world consequences of actions, rejecting the notion that external forces are to blame.
Alan Moore's quote reflects a strong philosophical stance on moral responsibility, arguing that the challenges and tragedies of the world are not the result of abstract forces like fate or divine will, but rather the direct result of human actions and decisions. It calls upon individuals to recognize their role in shaping the world and to take accountability for the harm that occurs, insisting that change begins with us and requires active participation rather than passive acceptance of a predetermined fate.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on social justice, this quote can be used to emphasize the necessity of taking personal action rather than waiting for divine intervention.
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
No matter how much I wanted all those things that I needed money to buy, there was some devilish current pushing me off in another direction -- toward anarchy and poverty and craziness. That maddening delusion that a man can lead a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas Goat.
That which exists possesses identity; he could keep it out of existence by refusing to identify it.
If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.
When Ford sells a car, a dealer isn't allowed to take out the engine and put a different one in. When a newsstand sells the Washington Post, no one can go to the newsstand and pay them to rip out the classified section and put their own classified section in - if they could, they would do so.
There is no doubt that we cannot do without variable quantities in the sense of the potential infinite. But from this very fact the necessity of the actual infinite can be demonstrated.