How could one man have slipped through your force's fingers time and time again? How is it possible? This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his Ph.D. at the time of the Black Mesa Incident. I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills. The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards simply that: an ordinary man. How can you have failed to apprehend him? Well... I will leave the upbraiding for another time, to the extent it proves necessary. Now is the moment to redeem yourselves.
— Dr. Breen, Half-Life 2
Grant: You're the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time!
John McClane: Story of my life.
John McClane: Story of my life.
— Die Hard 2: Die Harder
"Listen, I'm just a bio-chemist. Most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo. A beige one. But what I'm dealing with here, is one of the deadliest substances the earth has ever known so whaddaya say you cut me some friggin' slack?"
—Stanley Goodspeed, The Rock
Anders: You know, I've been meaning to thank you. You don't need to stick your neck out for the mages here, but you have.
Hawke: I'm really not trying to make a stand; I just...keep ending up in these situations.
Anders: I know. That's what makes it matter.
Hawke: I'm really not trying to make a stand; I just...keep ending up in these situations.
Anders: I know. That's what makes it matter.
Varric: So, I guess for someone who's noble, would that make you innocent?
Arturia: I've been falsely accused when I only just appeared, I have taken no part in what happened.
Varric: Really? So you just came at the wrong place at the wrong time?
Arturia: It's more like I've been pulled into this without my say.
Arturia: I've been falsely accused when I only just appeared, I have taken no part in what happened.
Varric: Really? So you just came at the wrong place at the wrong time?
Arturia: It's more like I've been pulled into this without my say.
The piece is nothing. The position is all.
— Well-placed Pawn description, Fallen London
Eventually, one day, somebody will pray for a miracle, pray for something to save them to whatever gods are nearby, and that prayer will be answered because you'll show up. That's how it works. That's what a champion is.
— Caduceus Clay, Critical Role
"A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat."
—The Emperor of China, Mulan
"There are other scientists like me. Any one of them could have done what I did. But you... everything we asked for, everything we needed; men, material, lunar rovers. Who else could have done these things? They heard me, but they listened to you. Of all the ministers and all the deputies. Entire congregation of obedient fools, they mistakenly sent the one good man. For God's sakes Boris, you were the one who mattered the most!"
— Valery Legasov, Chernobyl
