"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
"I don't know who started this conspiracy, but I know who will end it."
"I did not think this fight would last a lifetime. Now I know it will last many more."
FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucius, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids — always by a Freemason.
"You think Bigfoot is funny because we want you to think Bigfoot is funny."
— Director Jones on SCP-1000
, SCP Foundation
, SCP Foundation Quences: Down the ages, we walk with the most supreme in power, reminding them of their fate, that life and power are only fleeting, and the only certainty is death.
The Doctor: And now you have a president in the family at last... and another victim to prey on. Ennoblement, influence, doom. Everything you've always wanted.
—Big Finish Doctor Who "Auld Mortality"
"They got it wrong in the comics. They talk about secret evil groups trying to stop the heroes. I don't think we are particularly evil, and we don't choose sides. We try to stop both of you. If there is one of you, the opposite of you appears. It escalates. We step in. There just can't be gods amongst us. It's not fair. It has worked just fine for 10,000 years, our way."
— Dr. Ellie Staple, Glass
If I ever do become an author decades from now that's one thing I'll definitely subvert. I intend to have an ancient conspiracy that didn't foresee Hitler declaring war on the Soviets and U.S., and with a poor understanding of nuclear weapons initially expected a bloody conventional war between the Warsaw Pact and N.A.T.O., only to find that the latter didn't happen and after previously investing too much into Germany they then transitioned to South America too soon which left them effectively powerless and prone to internal rebellion for decades. Then after they finally overcome the far-right prejudices of most of the older members and recruit Communist members the Soviet Union breaks up fifteen years later and the last of their useful Communist members (a Cuban) gets arrested on suspicion of spying for the Americans. They won't even be important to the story, it'll just be a big 'Take That!' to all the books, movies and games with ancient, all-powerful conspiracies.
— Granten, comment thread for Mass Effect: Human Revolution
for Mass Effect: Human Revolution