Dead Poets Society Quotes

John Keating: Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
John Keating: Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
John Keating: Close your eyes - closure! Close 'em! Now, describe what you see.
Todd Anderson: I... I close my eyes, 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: 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... Truth's like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.
John Keating: [some of the class start to laugh] Forget them, forget them! Stay with the blanket. Tell me about that blanket!
Todd Anderson: Y-You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it will never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will cover just your head as you wail and cry and scream! [class appauds]
John Keating: Don't you forget this.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
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, [imitating a goat]
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.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
Knox: C'mon, Chris, just give me one chance. If you don't like me after tonight I'll stay away forever.
Chris Noel: Uh-huh.
Knox: I promise. Dead Poets Honor. You come with me tonight and then if you don't want to see me again I swear I'll bow out.
Chris Noel: You know what would happen if Chet found out?
Knox: He won't know anything. We'll sit in the back and sneak away as soon as it's over.
Chris Noel: And I suppose that you would promise that this would be the end of it.
Knox: Dead Poets Honor.
Chris Noel: What is that?
Knox: My word.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
Meeks: I'll try anything once.
Dalton: Yeah, except sex.

Movie: Dead Poets Society
Student in class: [reading his poem] A cat sat on a mat
John Keating: Congratulations. You may have just written the first poem to get a negative score on the Pritchard scale.

Movie: Dead Poets Society