“You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.”

—  Banksy

Wall and Piece (2005)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Aug. 20, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You can win the rat race but you're still a rat." by Banksy?
Banksy photo
Banksy 82
pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activ…

Related quotes

Lily Tomlin photo

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Contributions of Jane Wagner

Jane Wagner photo

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.”

Jane Wagner (1935) Playwright, actress

Other material for Lily Tomlin

Anna Quindlen photo

“Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Source: A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Bertolt Brecht photo

“If you join the rat race — you're in the race of rats.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director
Winston S. Churchill photo

“Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Remark in 1923 after rejoining the Conservatives, having left them earlier to join the Liberals; reported in Kay Halle, Irrepressible Churchill (1966), p. 52–53. Other sources say this remark was made in 1924.
Early career years (1898–1929)

Ilana Mercer photo

“Think of lab rats racing through a maze, when you watch the sub-intelligent, dual-panel 'dialogue' … Each rat runs with a designated, neatly bifurcated (Republican or Democratic) political orthodoxy. Each is a 'maze-bright' rat, and not the possessor and giver of any truth.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"'Left' and 'Right' Bamboozling You on Benghazi" http://www.americandailyherald.com/pundits/ilana-mercer/item/left-and-right-bamboozling-you-on-benghazi, American Daily Herald, January 13, 2014.
2010s, 2014

Mel Brooks photo

“Impoverished Paris Street Merchant (Jack Carter): Rats, rats for sale. Get your rats. Good for rat stew, rat soup, or the ever-popular ratatouille.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

History of the World, Part I

Nick Cave photo

“Rats in paradise! Rats in paradise!”

Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician

Song lyrics, Mutiny (1993), Mutiny in Heaven

Harry Harrison photo

“It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment.”

Harry Harrison The Stainless Steel Rat

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985)
The Stainless Steel Rat
Context: We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment.

Related topics