"Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki: I ordered you to conduct an investigation. I never said skip the paperwork and act like vigilantes. I certainly don't recall ordering you to barge into any Yakuza office. This isn't the jungle and you're not Special Forces hit men."

"[first title cards]: In a future time when most human thought has been accelerated by artificial intelligence and external memory can be shared on a universal matrix, Batou, an agent of the elite Section 9 Security Force and a being so artificially modified as to be essentially cyborg, is assigned, along with his mostly human partner, Togusa, to investigate a series of gruesome murders."

"[Quoting the writings on the wall] Life and death come and go like marionettes dancing on a table. Once their strings are cut, they easily crumble."

"[With his head between his hands, looking to the floor after a grenade explodes near him] All I could see... were my wife and daughter's faces."

"Understanding is in principle solely based on wishful thinking."

"Let one walk alone, committing no sin, with few wishes, like elephants in the forest. (Based on a Buddhist Poem)"

"Who can gaze into the mirror without becoming evil? The mirror does not reflect evil, but creates it." Based on the Saitō Ryokuu quote: "There is something evil about several people holding mirrors, it is not that it exposes evil; rather, it helps create evil."

"We are saddened by a bird's cry, but not a fish's blood; Blessed are those with voices. If those dolls had voices, I bet each and everyone would scream "I don't want to be a human." (Alternate translation from one of the dubbed versions)"

"We weep for the blood of a bird, but not for the blood of a fish. Blessed are those with a voice. If the dolls could speak, no doubt they'd scream, "I didn't want to become human.""

"If the essence of life is information carried in DNA, then society and civilization are just colossal memory systems, and a metropolis like this one, simply a sprawling external memory."

"Just as luck appears in three, so does misfortune. Because you don't want to see it, you don't see it coming. Even if you notice it, you don't say anything. Even if you're told, you don't listen. Then boom, the end comes!"

"When there is no right or wrong it's time to beat the drums and attack."

"A half-assed approach just won't cut it."

"When talking fails, it's time to break shit up."