Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace (see "Source" section below) that has become an aphorism. It is popularly translated as "seize the day". Carpe literally means "to pick, pluck, pluck off, cull, crop, gather", but Ovid used the word in the sense of, "to enjoy, seize, use, make use of".[1]
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In Horace, the phrase is part of the longer Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – "Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future", and the ode says that the future is unforeseen, and that instead one should scale back one's hopes to a brief future, and drink one's wine. This phrase is usually understood against Horace's Epicurean background.[2]
The phrase ?אם לא עכשיו, אימתי "And if not now, when?" (Pirkei Avoth 1:14)
The phrase Collige, virgo, rosas [...] ("gather, girl, the roses") appears at the end of the poem De rosis nascentibus[3] (also called Idyllium de rosis) attributed to Ausonius or Virgil. It encourages youth to enjoy life before it is too late; compare Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May from To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.
Related but distinct is the expression memento mori ("remember that you are mortal") which carries some of the same connotation as carpe diem. For Horace, mindfulness of our own mortality is key in making us realize the importance of the moment. "Remember that you are mortal, so seize the day." Over time the phrase memento mori also came to be associated with penitence, as suggested in many vanitas paintings. Today many listeners will take the two phrases as representing almost opposite approaches, with 'carpe diem' urging us to savour life and 'memento mori' urging us to resist its allure. This is not the original sense of the memento mori phrase as used by Horace.
Similarly, ubi sunt – "where are they [now]?" – invokes transience and meditation on death, but is not an exhortation to action. Compare Dead Poets Society, where a trophy case filled with pictures of long-dead boys ("these boys are now fertilizing daffodils") leads to an invocation of carpe diem.
De Brevitate Vitae ("On the Shortness of Life"), often referred to as Gaudeamus igitur, ("Let us rejoice") is a popular academic commercium song, on taking joy in student life, with the knowledge that one will someday die. It is medieval Latin, dating to 1287.
Horace himself parodies the phrase in another of his poems, 'The town mouse and the country mouse'. He uses the phrase carpe viam meaning 'seize the road' to compare the two different attitudes to life of a person (or in this case, a mouse) living in a city and in the countryside.
Original usage from Odes 1.11, in Latin and English:
| Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi | Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end |
| finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios | the gods have granted to me or you, Leuconoe. Don't play with Babylonian |
| temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati. | fortune-telling either. How much better it is to endure whatever will be! |
| seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam, | Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one |
| quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum: | which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite |
| sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi | — be wise, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes |
| spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida | to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled |
| aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. | Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future. |
John Keating, a character played by Robin Williams in the film Dead Poets Society (1989) says, "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." The American Film Institute ranked this line number 95 in its list of the 100 best quotations in American film history,[4] and the phrase was also the title of a soundtrack in the movie. In the Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet, Harvie's empty life is changed completely when he sees the inscription underneath a statue of Horace, prompting him to seize the day and do as he pleases.
Seize the Day is name of a song by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, from their 2005 album City of Evil. 'Carpe Diem Baby' is name of a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, from their 1997 album ReLoad. 'Carpe Diem' is name of a song by American progressive metalcore band August Burns Red, from their 2011 album Leveler. Carpe Diem is the name of Japanese rock band Aqua Timez's 2011 album, and is the name of a song by punk rock band Green Day.
Author Terry Pratchett parodied the phrase in his novel, Carpe Jugulum, which he translated as "go for the throat."
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