“Just a whisper. I hear it in my ghost.” - Major Motoko Kusanagi
“Incorrect. I am not an AI. My code name is Project 2501. I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information.” - Puppet Master
“I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.”
- Major Motoko Kusanagi
“All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.” - Puppet Master
“...I am sentient and I am able to recognize my own existence, but in my present state I am still incomplete. I lack the most basic processes inherent in all living organisms: reproducing and dying.” - Puppet Master
“Maybe someday your 'maker' will come…haul you away, take you apart, and announce the recall of a defective product. What if all that's left of the 'real you' is just a couple of lonely brain cells, huh?” - Major Motoko Kusanagi
“I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it.” - Batou
“It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself.” - Puppet Master
“Man is an individual only because of his intangible memory. But memory cannot be defined, yet it defines mankind.” - Puppet Master
“And can you offer me proof of your existence? How can you, when neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is?” - Puppet Master
“I guess cyborgs like myself have a tendency to be paranoid about our origins.”
- Major Motoko Kusanagi
“What if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghost, create a soul all by itself? And if it did, just what would be the importance of being human then?”
- Major Motoko Kusanagi
“If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it's wired into the core of our being.” - Major Motoko Kusanagi
“Any way you look at it, all the information that a person accumulates in a lifetime is just a drop in the bucket.” - Batou
“When I float weightless back to the surface, I'm imagining I'm becoming someone else.” - Major Motoko Kusanagi
“There's nothing sadder than a puppet without a ghost, especially the kind with red blood running through them.” - Batou
“We have been subordinate to our limitations until now. The time has come to cast aside these bonds and to elevate our consciousness to a higher plane. It is time to become a part of all things.” - Puppet Master
“If we all reacted the same way, we'd be predictable, and there's always more than one way to view a situation...It's simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death.” - Major Motoko Kusanagi
“Because I see you in myself. As a body sees its reflection within a mirror.”
- Puppet Master
“And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.”
- Major Motoko Kusanagi / Puppet Master
Ghost in the Shell has influenced many people over the years, including Hollywood filmmakers such as the Wachowskis and James Cameron. This philosophical film truly makes you contemplate what it means to be human, as well as how technology is changing the modern world. Hopefully, you enjoyed these quotes, and now have some new insight into the ever-changing boundaries between man and machine.
