No gods or kings, only man About no gods or kings Only man is a phrase that appears on a banner above the entrance to the underwater city of rapture from the 2007 video game bioshock A memorable component of the game due to its prominent placement at its very start, the banner and the slogan have been referenced and appeared in a variety of memes in the 2010s and 2020s. “no gods or kings, only man.” no higher authority than that of reason and rationality A place where “the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty.
The phrase no gods or kings, only man, famously from the video game bioshock, articulates the core philosophy of the underwater city of rapture and its founder, andrew ryan. On june 2025, elon musk posted a mysterious quote on x:“no gods or kings, only man.”the phrase—lifted straight from the 2007 dystopian video game bioshock—ha. “no gods or kings only man” what does this mean to you from both your own perspective and the perspective of andrew ryan. Both gods and kings are plural, but ryan intentionally uses the singular man instead of the plural
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