Why “The Carpe Method”
Carpe Diem. Seize the Day.
Carpe diem is a Latin aphorism meaning “seize the day,” a sentiment that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of The Carpe Method which is here to help students seize their day and make the most out of their experiences in higher education. The phrase first appears in the Roman poet Horace’s work Odes, and has since reappeared in countless works of art, cinema, literature, and more. Find examples below of various ways in which “carpe diem” is expressed throughout time.
Horace’s Odes
Ask not (’tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years,
Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers.
Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past,
Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our last;
This, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend their strength against the shore.
Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is short; should hope be more?
In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb’d away.
Seize the present; trust tomorrow e’en as little as you may.
Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Mr. Keating, in “Dead Poet’s Society”
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. Listen, you hear it? Carpe. . . Hear it? Carpe. . . Carpe diem. . . Seize the day boys. . . Make your lives extraordinary.
The Carpe Method 