A sundial inscribed carpe diem

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, to eat food, to serve, to want", but Ovid used the word in the sense of, "to enjoy, seize, use, make use of".^[1]

Meaning [link]

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]

Related expressions [link]

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (January 2012)

Hebrew [link]

The phrase ?אם לא עכשיו, אז מתי "And if not now, Then when?" (Pirkei Avoth 1:14) carpe diem- seize the day/נצל את היום

Other Latin [link]

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, by John William Waterhouse.

An 1898 German postcard, quoting Gaudeamus igitur.

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.

Nunc est bibendum ("now is the time to drink") from the Odes of Horace: Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus ("Now is the time to drink, now the time to dance footloose upon the earth").

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.

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.

Source [link]

Original usage from Odes 1.11, in Latin and English:

See also [link]

• Tempus fugit

References [link]

External links [link]

• Media related to Carpe diem at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary entry for carpe diem
• Carpe Diem Artist Community
• Carpe Diem International Education Website

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