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.

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.

Gloria: Don't you guys miss having girls around here?
Meeks, Pitts: [yell in unison] Yeah!

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.

[after hearing "The Introduction to Poetry"] 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!"

Pitts: Your father collects pipes? Oh, that really interesting.

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!

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?

If I were ever going to buy a deskset twice, I'd probably buy this one... both times.

But only in their dreams can men be truly free. Twas always thus, and always thus will be.

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

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

There is a time for daring and a time for caution, and a wise man knows which is called for.

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

No grades at stake, gentlemen. Just take a stroll.