Quotes from Dead Poets Society:
John Keating: No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.
John Keating: 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.
John Keating: 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.
John Keating: 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
John Keating: Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.
John Keating: There is a time for daring and a time for caution, and a wise man knows which is
called for.
John Keating: I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself.
Nolan: At these boys age? Not on your life!
Neil: For the first time in my life, I know what I want to do! And for the first time, I'm going to
DO IT! Whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem!
John Keating: We're not laughing at you - we're laughing near you.
John Keating: Why do we need language?
Neil: To communicate...
John Keating: Nooo! To woo women!
Quoting Henry David Thoreau
Neil: I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck
out all the marrow of life... to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.
McAllister: Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams and I'll show you a happy man.
John Keating: But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus and always
thus will be.
McAllister: Tennyson?
John Keating: No, Keating.
