Dead Poets Society quotes

View Quote Keating: You don't have to perform. Just make it for yourself. Mr. Dalton? Will you be joining us?
Charlie: Exercising the right not to walk.
Keating: Thank you, Mr. Dalton. You just illustrated the point. Swim against the stream.

View Quote John Keating: Why do we need language?
Neil: To communicate...
John Keating: Nooo! To woo women!

View Quote 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! Thank you for playing anyway. 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.

View Quote Hager: That wouldn't be a radio in your lap, would it Mr. Pitts?
Pitts: No sir. Science experiment, radar.

View Quote McAllister: You take a big risk by encouraging them to be artists John. When they realize they're not Rembrandts, Shakespeares or Mozarts, they'll hate you for it.
Keating: We're not talking artists George, we're talking free thinkers.
McAllister: Free thinkers at seventeen?
Keating: Funny, I never pegged you as a cynic.
McAllister: Not a cynic, a realist. Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams, and I'll show you a happy man.
Keating: But only in their dreams can man be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.
McAllister: Tennyson?
Keating: No, Keating.

View Quote Charlie: Wait a minute, who gave us half a roll?
Pitts: I'm eating the other half.
Charlie: Come on.
Pitts: You want me to put it back?

View Quote Keating: Why do I stand up here? Anybody?
Charlie: To feel taller.
Keating: No! Thank you for playing, Mr. Dalton. I stand upon my desk to remind yourself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.

View Quote Pitts: "Oh to struggle against great odds. To meet enemies undaunted."
Keating: Sounds to me like you're daunted. Say it again like you're undaunted.
Pitts: “Oh to struggle against great odds. To meet enemies undaunted."
Keating: Now go on.

View Quote Keating: Come on, Meeks! Listen to the music.
Meeks: "To dance, clap hands, exalt, shout, skip, roll on, float on."
Keating: Yes!

View Quote Hopkins: [without energy] "Oh, to have life henceforth the poem of new joys."
Keating: Oh! Boo! Come on, Charlie, let it fill your soul!
Charlie: [lifts his arms, looking up and yells] “To indeed be a god!"

View Quote Neil: You kicked out?
Charlie: No.
Neil: What happened?
Charlie: I'm to apologize to the school, turn everyone in, and all will be forgiven.
Neil: What are you gunna do? ... Charlie?
Charlie: DAMN IT NEIL... the name's Nuwanda...