Dead Poets Society
Keating: The picture of Uncle Walt up there. What does he remind you of? Don't think. Answer. Go on.
Todd: A m-m-madman.
Keating: What kind of madman? Don't think about it. Just answer again.
Todd: A c-crazy madman.
Keating: No, you can do better than that. Free up your mind. Use your imagination. Say the first thing that pops into your head, even if it's total gibberish. Go on, go on.
Todd: Uh, uh, a sweaty-toothed madman.
Keating: Good God, boy, there's a poet in you, after all. There, close your eyes. Close your eyes. Close 'em. Now, describe what you see.
Todd: Uh, I-I close my eyes.
Keating: Yes?
Todd: Uh, and this image floats beside me.
Keating: A sweaty-toothed madman?
Todd: A sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brain.
Keating: Oh, that's excellent. Now, give him action. Make him do something.
Todd: H-His hands reach out and choke me.
Keating: That's it. Wonderful. Wonderful.
Todd: And, and all the time he's mumbling.
Keating: What's he mumbling?
Todd: M-Mumbling, "Truth. Truth is like, like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold."
[The students begin to laugh and Todd opens his eyes. Keating quickly gestures for him to close them again]
Keating: Forget them, forget them. Stay with the blanket. Tell me about that blanket.
Todd: Y-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 to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.
Keating: Don't you forget this.
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.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! Break out! Now is the time!
Keating: "Seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." Why does the writer use these lines?
Charlie: Because he's in a hurry.
Keating: No. Ding! Because we are food for worms, lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die.
