“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”
Cave Johnson, founder and CEO of Aperature Science
"A man chooses! A slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan, BioShock
In general a lot of Andrew Ryan quotes are captivating, but that one transcends thanks to both the events happening, and the realization of the plot reveal.
"All right, I've been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get MAD! I DON'T WANT YOUR DAMN LEMONS! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THESE? DEMAND TO SEE LIFE'S MANAGER! MAKE LIFE RUE THE DAY IT THOUGHT IT COULD GOVE CAVE JOHNSON LEMONS! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'M THE MAN WHO'S GONNA BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN...WITH THE LEMONS." - Portal 2
Gunnery Chief: This, recruits, is a 20-kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight. Every five seconds, the main gun of an Everest-class dreadnought accelerates one to 1.3 percent of light speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kiloton bomb. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space. Now! Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's First Law?
Serviceman Burnside: Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!
Gunnery Chief: No credit for partial answers, maggot!
Serviceman Burnside: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!
Gunnery Chief: Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going till it hits something. That can be a ship, or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your damn targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it!" This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!
"Aperture Science: We do what we must, because we can."
EDIT:
Also: "Science isn't about why - it's about why not. Why is so much of our science dangerous? Why not marry safe science if you love it so much? In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won't hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired!"
I still use Left 4 Dead’s “pills here!” any time I’m dealing with medication. It’s an involuntary reflex at this point.
Also not really a line but the intonation of Chadley calling out “Cloud!” when he starts a conversation is seared into my psyche. Kind of like a modern version Navi’s “hey!”
Sister Calderón: We’ve all lived bad lives, Mr. Morgan. We all sin… but I know you.
Arthur: You don’t know me.
Sister Calderón: Forgive me, but… that’s the problem. You don’t know you.
Arthur: What do you mean?
Sister Calderón: I don’t know… whenever we happen to meet, you’re always helping people and smiling.
Arthur: I had a son… he passed away. I had a girl who loved me… I threw that away. My momma died when I was a kid, and my daddy… well, I watched him die. And it weren’t soon enough.
Sister Calderón: My husband died a long time ago. Life is full of pain. But there is also love, and beauty.
Arthur: What am I gonna do now?
Sister Calderón: Be grateful that for the first time, you see your life clearly.
Perhaps you could help somebody? Helping makes you really happy.
Arthur: But… I still don’t believe in nothin’.
Sister Calderón: Often, neither do I. But then, I meet someone like you, and everything makes sense
Arthur: Heh… You’re too smart for me, Sister. I guess I… I’m afraid.
Sister Calderón: There is nothing to be afraid of. Take a gamble that love exists, and do a loving act.
"He's fucked in the head, the world's fucked in the head, and YOU'RE fucked in the head because MY fucked up head is inside it. Guess if you wanna save the world, that's the first step; get fucked in the head."
I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!
"They have taken you from the Imperial City's prison, first by carriage and now by boat, to the east, to Morrowind. Fear not, for I am watchful. You, have been chosen."
Definition: "Love" is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope.
Statement: This definition, I am told, is subject to interpretation. Obviously, love is a matter of odds. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and strangely enough, not many meatbags would derive love from it. Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose... against statistically long odds.
"Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue."
And so SO many others from Darkest Dungeon.
"Commander" from the newer X-Com games ... tha dark, rapsy voice
Build a navy.
Stop building a navy.
Build a navy.
Stop building a navy.
Give me your extra resources.
Sure, blame it on your ISP!
Don't point that thing at me!
"What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output."
There are many more iconic lines in the game, but this one sticks in my mind, probably because you meet so many Huntsman and this is one of their favourite lines.
Arma (or Flashpoint before it). Although it's gotten slightly better in that regard, I think. Haven't run it in quite some time. It's still probably the best there is for milsims though.
Look, everybody always figures the time they live in is the most epic, most important age to end all ages. But tyrants and heroes rise and fall, and historians sort out the pieces."
"This train doesn't belong to you. So why don't you turn around and face me, pumpkin?"
Pierce: "This train was commandeered legally under the---"
"Holy nutballs! What happened to your frickin' face?!"
"Oh yeah? How about this - lady? - I don't even know what to call you: you tell me why you look like you headbutted a belt sander, and I'll let all of you go right now."
"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."
--AM
Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped... in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is it a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle... and wonder if we'll have the chance to kill him.
A line from the main character of Beyond The Edge of Owlsgard. The English voice actor confirmed that the line was improvised. It's probably a lot more tame in the German dub, but the line is so funny that they probably had to put it in the English dub.
It was the first videogame I ever heard talk. And full disclosure, 5 year old me, thought it said, "destroy him my-rin bolts". It wasn't until years later, my dad actually corrected me.
We're not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing... the only thing I was good at. But... at least I always fought for what I believed in.
"In the room ahead is a spider artifact. Take it! We will need it to reach the Santieri Crystal."
Also
"There is but one gift I can offer that is equal in value to an Elder Scroll and my daughter: I offer you my blood. Take it and you will walk as a lion among sheep, men will tremble at your approach, and you will never fear death again."
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the Machine is immortal. Even in death I serve the Omnissiah.
Not going to cite the source, since it spoils part of this game, and it’s currently popular.
I have something to say. So shut the fuck up and listen. I spent thirteen years half-cut up to my eyeballs. Drunk, to put it mildly. Then suddenly I saw it, a streetlight shining in my face. 500 Gigawatts of the power of God. A vision of my bloated body found in some ditch. Scared me straight. So I got a collar shirt, mortgage and a credit card. All the things that make me a good man. I hoped I could raise my children to be better than their old man. I wanted to believe I was never one setback away from my worst self. But the truth is. Discipline. Drive. Routine. The endless fucking desperation to get shit done. A loving wife? Great kids? Sobriety? I'm telling you. You. Accomplishments I've been chasing my whole life. Never felt as good as I expected when I crossed the finish line... So now that we're at the end. Takin' inventory. Those nights spinning out of my head, sinking into the sofa. Broken glass in my palms. Bleeding dry the funniest thing ever. Old dogs laughing and snarling on a waterbed floor, mocking the moon for daring to show its face. All nausea and wreckage and vomit and ugly cruelty. The only problem in the world an empty bottle. Those were the best days of my life. Yeah... Those were the best days of my life. I got nothing to hide. Ready to face the music. I can see myself for what I am. But you, a cowardly, selfish motherfucker and you can't even see it... I should've been able to protect the kid. If I could have done one thing right, I wish it had been to give him one small chance off this goddamned rock.
"I don't know if I'm good or evil. Stupid words, anyway... But I'm trying to be gentle to others and hard on myself. I know how to sympathize and not judge. I try to love whoever I touch. That's the only answer I have."
Welcome to Eversmile. Set in the realm of joy. The people of Eversmile are plagued only by aching facial muscles. And not anthrax as we had hoped. Eversmile is a disgusting land of good humor and polite frivolity.
The version that’s stuck in my head is Japanese so this is a translation.
Watch. See how they’ve lived their lives with pride, and with their lives they’ve sang the ode to civilization. This is the story of those whom people called heroes, the unfinished journey of the 13 who chased the flame. But traveller, your journey continues on, isn’t that right? Then, follow your heart and move on. Follow the footsteps and witness that flame chasing journey to the end. And finally… walk across the graves of those who have fallen. And for that future which “we” could not create… GO CREATE IT!