A man chooses, a slave obeys

One of the themes of Bioshock, and Andrew Ryan's personal motto.

The theme of self-determination and the question of destiny in the game is embodied by this phrase. During the game, the player, Jack (character)|Jack]], is given many choices, both tactically and morally, but his actions turned out to be illusory - his will had been controlled and driven by Frank Fontaine, under the guise of Atlas, via the code phrase "Would you kindly..."

Ryan, once he identified who Jack really was, first openly controlled the player with the code phrase, forcing him to do humiliating actions with pet commands, then used it to have the player kill him. As Jack was forced to murder him with with a golf club, Ryan repeatedly screamed at him, "A man chooses, a slave obeys!" Unable to stop, Jack was forced to acknowledge that he never had a choice, even his "plane crash" was due to Jack's hijacking the plane and deliberately crashing it at the lighthouse.

Jack's new question: self-determination.