Avoid using the word 'very' because it's lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason boys - to woo women - and in that endeavor, laziness will not do.
— Robin Williams
Special Dead Poets Society quotations
Your True Nature Is Love. There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

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.


The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute.
We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.
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?

The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life? That you are here - that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
But only in their dreams can men be truly free. It was always thus and always thus will be.

Seize the day. 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.
I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.
Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.

There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.
If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you.
Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

What I might do is watch Mrs Doubtfire.
Or Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting and I might be nice to people, mindful today how fragile we all are, how delicate we are, even when fizzing with divine madness that seems like it will never expire.
Law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
I am that merry wanderer of the night.

We're not laughing at you - we're laughing near you
I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.
So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends.

The meek may inherit the earth, but they don't get in to Harvard.
The experience on that movie (Dead Poets Society) was, for lack of a better term, life-altering. Peter Weir has a unique talent for making movies that are intelligent but also mainstream. I've never been terribly successful at doing that.
Truth like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold screenwriter of Dead Poets' Society.

When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think.
Let me dispel a few rumors so they don't fester into facts.
Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn't that right, Todd? And that's your worse fear.

If I were a teacher, I would like to teach freshman English - so I could be the Robin Williams type in Dead Poets Society. I wanna be that guy. I couldn't teach seniors because they'd be smarter than me.
The first time I ever cried in a movie was in Dead Poet's Society.
It was when I was on the set of Dead Poets Society.
There was actor,his name was Norman Lloyd. One day he took us all aside and said, "You guys don't even understand what a powerful experience you're having. You don't really understand what a gift this is." We were going, "What does he mean?" It was that really wonderful opportunities aren't to be taken for granted. I often found that it had embedded itself in my memory.

The first movie that made me cry was Dead Poets Society.
That one gets me. O Captain! My Captain! That moment kills me.
When I did a study of all the coming-of-age movies that meant a lot to me, whether it was 'The Graduate' or 'Rebel Without a Cause' or 'Dead Poet's Society,' they all had that timeless feel. None of them were completely married to the details of their age. They felt timeless in their treatment of it. That's what made them resonate with me.