Dead Poets Society Quotes

Excrement! That's what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard! We're not laying pipe! We're talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? "I like Byron, I give him a 42 but I can't dance to it!"

Charlie Dalton: It'll help you get Chris!
Knox Overstreet: Yeah? How?
Charlie Dalton: Women swoon!
Knox Overstreet: But why do they swoon?
Knox Overstreet: Charlie, tell me why they swoon!

Gerard Pitts: Too bad.
Knox Overstreet: It's worse than "too bad," Pittsie. It's a tragedy. A girl this beautiful in love with such a jerk.
Gerard Pitts: All the good ones go for jerks. You know that.

The point, Charlie... is... that she was thinking about me. I've only met her once, and already she's thinking about me.

If I don't ask him, at least I won't be disobeying him.

For the first time in my whole life, I know what I wanna do! And for the first time, I'm gonna do it! Whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem!

Now, don't just walk off the edge like lemmings! Look around you!

Mr. Meeks, time to inherit the earth.

Phone call from God. If it had been collect, that would have been daring!

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.

Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

Todd Anderson: You want me out? Fine, I'm out.
Neil Perry: No, I want you in, but being in means you have to do something. Not just saying you're in.

Todd Anderson: Keating said that everybody took turns reading and I don't wanna do that.
Neil Perry: Gosh, you really have a problem with that, don't you?
Todd Anderson: N-No, I don't have a problem, Neil. I just... I don't wanna do it, okay?

Todd Anderson: The point is, that there's nothing you can do about it. So you can just butt out. I can take care of myself just fine. All right?
Neil Perry: No.
Todd Anderson: What do you mean 'no'?
Neil Perry: No!

John Keating: Close your eyes, close your eyes! Close 'em! Now, describe what you see.
Todd Anderson: Uh, I-I close my eyes.
John Keating: Yes.
Todd Anderson: Uh, and this image floats beside me.
John Keating: A sweaty-toothed madman.
Todd Anderson: A sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brain.
John Keating: Oh, that's excellent! Now, give him action - make him do something!
Todd Anderson: H-His hands reach out and choke me.
John Keating: That's it! Wonderful, wonderful!
Todd Anderson: And all the time he's mumbling.
John Keating: What's he mumbling?
Todd Anderson: Mumbling truth.
John Keating: Yeah, yes.
Todd Anderson: Truth like-like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.
John Keating: Forget them, forget them! Stay with the blanket. Tell me about that blanket!
Todd Anderson: Y-Y-You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it'll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying t-to the moment we leave dying, it'll just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.
John Keating: Don't you forget this.

You're in the club! Being in the club means being stirred up by things! You look about as stirred up as a cesspool!

They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because you see, gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen. You hear it?... Carpe... Hear it?... Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

I was good. I was really good.

This is a battle, a war, and the casualties could be your hearts and souls.

I was the intellectual equivalent of a 98-pound weakling! I would go to the beach and people would kick copies of Byron in my face!

It's not the Bible, you're not gonna go to Hell for this.

Mr. Anderson! Don't think that I don't know that this assignment scares the hell out of you, you mole!

There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.

Carpe diem, seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

John Keating: Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even though the herd may go,
John Keating: "that's baaaaad." Robert Frost said, "Two roads diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

We're not laughing at you. We're laughing near you.

I SOUND MY BARBARIC YAWP OVER THE ROOFTOPS OF THE WORLD.

O Captain, my Captain. Who knows where that comes from? Anybody? Not a clue? It's from a poem by Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Now in this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or if you're slightly more daring, O Captain my Captain.