Directed by Peter Weir. Written by Tom Schulman.

John Keating

• [talking about people in old awards ceremony photographs] 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. [the students lean in] Listen, you hear it? [whispers in a raspy voice] Carpe — hear it? — Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.
  • Note: the bolded portion is ranked #95 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

• We're not laughing at you; we're laughing near you.

• 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?

• When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think.

• Now I want you to rip out that page. Go on, rip out the entire page. You heard me, rip it out. Rip it out! Thank you Mr. Dalton. Gentlemen, tell you what: don't just tear out that page, tear out the entire introduction. I want it gone, history. Leave nothing of it. Rip it out. Rip! Begone, J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D. Rip, shred, tear. Rip it out. I want to hear nothing but ripping of Mr.Pritchard. It's not the Bible. You're not going to go to Hell for this. Go on, make a clean tear. I want nothing left of it.

• Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.

Neil Perry

• It was a dark and rainy night, and this old lady, who had a passion for jigsaw puzzles, sat by herself in her house at her table to complete a new jigsaw puzzle. But as she pieced the puzzle together, she realized, to her astonishment, that the image that was formed was her very own room. And the figure in the center of the puzzle, as she completed it, was herself. And with trembling hands, she placed the last four pieces and stared in horror at the face of a demented madman at the window. The last thing that this old lady ever heard was the sound of breaking glass.

Others

• Charlie: Welton Academy. Hello? Yes, he is. Just a moment. Mr. Nolan, it's for you. It's God. He says we should have girls at Welton.

Dialogue

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.

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 freethinkers.

McAllister: Freethinkers 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.

[Todd has been encouraged to improvise a poem.]

Todd: I close my eyes...and his image floats beside me.

Keating: ...the sweaty toothed madman...

Todd: The sweaty toothed madman whose stare pounds my brain.

Keating: Yes! Excellent.

Todd: And all the while he's mumbling.

Keating: What's he mumbling?

Todd: Mumbling Truth. Truth is like, like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.

[The class laughs.]

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.

[The class applauds.]

Keating: [whispering to Todd] Don't you forget this.

Taglines

• He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary.

• I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.