By John Keating (Robin Williams, screenplay by Tom Schulman)
Date: 3 November 1999

Quote From "Dead Poets Society" (1989)

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?
 
 
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