Would You Kindly: 10 Best Quotes From the BioShock Franchise

Released in 2007, BioShock was the spiritual successor to System Shock, a duology of 90s RPGs which featured complex RPG gameplay and seriously convoluted sci-fi narratives. BioShock, while ditching some of its predecessor’s more in-depth elements, was celebrated as one of the decade’s must-play titles and helped to bolster a horror genre drastically waning in popularity.

Terrifying though the series can certainly be, BioShock is at its best when it’s forcing players to question their perspectives and reinterpreted their worldviews. From the depths of the sea to the far-off firmament, these are some of the most memorable quotes heard throughout the Bioshock franchise.

A Man Chooses

“I Chose The Impossible; I Chose… Rapture.” – Andrew Ryan

After inexplicably surviving a crash landing in the middle of the ocean, BioShock‘s protagonist comes upon a massive lighthouse and discovers it to be a transportation hub to an underwater city. While descending into the depths via submersible, the traveler is treated to a monologue by the city’s founder, BioShock‘s partial-antagonist Andrew Ryan.

Explaining that he could no longer tolerate the domineering rule of the world’s superpowers, Ryan funded the construction of an underwater utopia intended to adhere to the principles of Randian Objectivism. The irony, of course, is that Ryan’s own domineering nature would lead to his city’s downfall.

Unity And Metamorphosis

“Utopia is not a place, but a people. It will exist the moment we are fit to occupy it.” – Sofia Lamb

Sofia Lamb, the principal antagonist of 2010’s BioShock 2, is everything Andrew Ryan was not; a psychiatrist who began preaching a message of unity after Ryan’s death, Lamb’s views are diametrically opposed to those of the late Rapture founder, though she is arguably no less of a megalomaniac.

This quote perfectly summarizes the differences between the two antagonists. Whereas Andrew Ryan strove to create a utopia based on enterprise and unregulated competition, Lamb wanted to create paradise through communal empowerment. However, both charaters’ political leanings were too extreme, leading to destruction in both cases.

We Swim In Different Oceans

“There’s Always A Lighthouse. There’s Always A Man. There’s Always A City.” – Elizabeth DeWitt/Comstock

While BioShock and its sequel played with some pretty heady themes, BioShock: Infinite, the series’ capstone, took things to an entirely new level. Introducing concepts involving string theory and multiverses, BioShock: Infinite included a jaw-dropping twist ending that likely took some players multiple playthroughs to fully digest.

During the game’s finale, Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth explore a seemingly-infinite multiverse represented by an infinite number of doors and lighthouses. During the journey, she offers this quote to surmise the underlying fact that, were that particular version of Booker not willing to do what he did, an untold amount of his alternate-universe counterparts still would have, and the game’s events would have played out regardless.

Come Back When You’ve Got Some Money, Buddy

“Do we gouge the suckers a little? Maybe, but where else they gonna go?” – Lloyd Webster

Lloyd Webster is a name only detail-oriented BioShock fans will know. The president of Circus of Values, the brand of vending machines from which the player buys supplies in the original game, this quote occasionally popped up during loading screens and hinted at the greed and monopolism which ran unabated in Rapture.

Webster knew that he was charging his patrons unfair prices, but he’d likely muscled out all of the competition in Rapture, allowing him to charge whatever he wanted for his products. This offers an important glimpse into the cracks that formed in Ryan’s underwater society before its collapse.

Amen

“The Lord forgives everything… but I’m just a prophet, so I don’t have to.” – Zachary Hale Comstock

To Columbia founder Zachary Comstock, belief is everything. He was so dedicated to his religious devotions that he created his own city over which he could rule unquestioned. However, his benevolent veneer slipped once Booker DeWitt arrived, something he’d anticipated for years.

As intimately familiar with the mind of his enemy as one could possibly be, Comstock dropped his facade and resorted immediately to violence, the only thing he believed DeWitt would understand. Unfortunately, this flew in the face of his prophetic image, and he made an attempt to absolve himself of blame with this early-game quote.

Quantum Mechanics

“If we could perceive time as it truly was, what reason would grammar professors have to get out of bed?” – The Lutece Twins

While there’s a good deal of mystery built up in Bioshock: Infinite‘s opening hours, the Lutece twins represent one of the title’s most profound. Strangely synchronized siblings who seem to know much more than they let on, the Luteces seems to appear at the least likely of times, apparently pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

As it happens, the Lutece twins are actually the same person from two different dimensions, and they more or less orchestrated the entirety of the game’s events from the construction of Columbia to the establishment of a link between Comstock’s city and Rapture. Masters of time and space, the Luteces have an undeniably unique perspective of the world(s) around them.

No Masters

“No Gods or Kings, Only Man.” – Andrew Ryan

Andrew Ryan had grand plans for an underwater utopia unburdened by regulation, but his own ego, apparent from the very start, manifested the destruction of his grand vision. Despite his hardline anti-government stance, Ryan became the ruler of his domain, and, ironically, his almost deific visage hangs over the entrance to Rapture alongside a banner emblazoned with the phrase “no gods or kings, only man.”

The quote is a summation of one of Ryan’s principle beliefs, but Rapture was rife with gods and kings. From leaders of industry like Ryan and Fontaine to citizens with god-like powers, the city was far from the equal playing field its creator purported it to be.

The Great Chain

“We All Make Choices, But, In The End, Our Choices Make Us.”

The concepts of destiny and pre-determined fate play a huge role in BioShock. From the terrifying inevitability of countless choices coalescing into a single event in BioShock: Infinite to the tug of a leash masquerading as free will in the original BioShock, the series loves to question the extent to which players’ actions are their own.

With this quote, Ryan highlights the importance of free will and diligent decision-making, something the player character is revealed to never have had during the game’s shocking midpoint twist.

Something Bred To Sleepwalk Through Life

“A Man Chooses… A Slave Obeys.”

Likely Andrew Ryan’s most famous quote, he repeatedly offers this phrase during his mid-game confrontation with the protagonist when he reveals that the player character has been strung along by Atlas by way of brainwashing and an activation phrase.

In a final attempt to break the protagonist of his conditioning, Ryan reiterates this quote, pleading with the player character to recognize that, rather than acting as an altruistic partner, he’s actually been a slave to Atlas, who is subsequently revealed to be Ryan’s bitter rival, Frank Fontaine.

A Familiar Phrase

“Would You Kindly?” – Atlas/Frank Fontaine

The most iconic quote in the entirety of the BioShock franchise, the phrase “would you kindly” serves as a three-word summation of the entirety of the first game’s plot. At first thought to be a hapless interloper looking to free Rapture of tyranny, the player character is tricked into doing the busywork of the villainous Frank Fontaine, all the while strung along by this seemingly-innocuous command.

“Would you kindly” emphasizes how easily one can be tricked, and it’s representative of how easily those operating under a guise of selflessness can manipulate the unwitting.