KEATING: How do we, like Whitman, permit our own true natures to speak? How do we strip ourselves of prejudices, habits, influences? The answer, my dear lads, is that we must constantly endeavor to find a new point of view.

(He leaps onto his desk.)

Why do I stand here? To feel taller than you? I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly force ourselves to look at things differently. The world looks different from up here. If you don't believe it, stand up here and try it. All of you. Take turns. Try never to think about anything the same way twice. If you're sure about something, force yourself to think about it another way, even if you know it's wrong or silly. When you read, don't consider only what the author thinks, but take the time to consider what you think. You must strive to find your own voice, boys, and 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." I ask, why be resigned to that? Risk walking new ground. Now. A flame in your hearts could change the world, lads. Nurture it.

NEIL: I've found it.
TODD: Found what?
NEIL: What I want to do! Right now. What is really inside of me.
TODD: A Midsummer Night's Dream? What is it?
NEIL: A play, dummy.
TODD: I know that. What's it got to do with you?
NEIL: They're putting it on at Henley Hall. See, open try-outs.
TODD: So?
NEIL: So I'm gonna act! Ever since I can remember I've wanted to try it. Last summer I even tried to go to summer stock auditions but of course my father wouldn't let me.
TODD: And now he will?
NEIL: No, but that's not the point. The point is for the first time in my whole life, I know what I want, and for the first time I'm gonna do it whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem!
TODD: Neil, how are you gonna be in a play if your father won't let you?
NEIL: First I gotta get the part, then I'll worry about that.
TODD: Won't he kill you if you don't let him know you're auditioning?
NEIL: As far as I'm concerned, he won't have to know about any of it.
TODD: Come on, that's impossible.

KEATING: What Knox has done demonstrates an important point, not only in writing poetry, but in every endeavor. That is, deal with the important things in life: love, beauty, truth, justice. And don't limit poetry to the word. Poetry can be found in a work of art, music, a photograph, in the way a meal is prepared --anything with the stuff of revelation in it. It can exist in the most everyday things but it must never, never be ordinary. By all means, write about the sky or a girl's smile but when you do, let your poetry conjure up salvation day, doomsday, any day, I don't care, as long as it enlightens us, thrills us and, if it's inspired, makes us feel a bit immortal.
MEEKS: Oh, Captain, My Captain. Is there poetry in math?
KEATING: Absolutely, Mr. Dalton, there is elegance in mathematics. If everyone wrote poetry, the planet would starve, for God's sake. But there must be poetry, and we must stop to notice it, in even the simplest acts of living, or we will have wasted the truly wonderful opportunity that life as human beings offers us. That said, who wants to recite next? Come on. I'll get to everyone eventually.