CURATED COLLECTION

Seizing the Day

Carpe diem is not a bumper sticker — it is an urgent instruction that philosophy has been repeating for millennia.

51 quotes found

“
Here must all distrust be left.

—Dante AlighieriPoet & Author

Medieval ERA • Southern Europe

“
Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.

—HoraceLyric Poet

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary OliverPoet

Late Modern ERA • North America

“
There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.

—Harriet TubmanAbolitionist & Activist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
Writing is work for eternity. If you write, you die twice — once bodily, once spiritually.

—Pramoedya Ananta ToerNovelist & Writer

Post-War ERA • Southeast Asia

“
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

—SenecaPhilosopher, Statesman & Playwright

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
The past never dies. It just sits in wait.

—Esi EdugyanNovelist

Digital Age ERA • North America

“
In Africa, when an elder dies, a library burns.

—Amadou Hampâté BâWriter, Historian & Diplomat

Post-War ERA • West Africa

“
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave.

—Henry David ThoreauWriter, Naturalist & Philosopher

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.

—Eduardo GaleanoJournalist & Author

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

“
The past that won't pass is precisely what demands our attention.

—Saidiya HartmanScholar & Author

Contemporary ERA • North America

“
Leave a legacy, not just a memory.

—Jay-ZScholar & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Lost time is never found again.

—Benjamin FranklinPolymath & Statesman

Enlightenment ERA • North America

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Memory is a monster that devours the present.

—Rosa MonteroJournalist & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • Southern Europe

“
I want to do something splendid... something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead.

—Louisa May AlcottNovelist & Poet

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
To be deprived of memory is to be deprived of life.

—Hisham MatarNovelist

Digital Age ERA • MENA

“
History is not past, it is ever present.

—M. NourbeSe PhilipPoet & Essayist

Contemporary ERA • Caribbean

“
The past is not the past. It is the present.

—Yaa GyasiNovelist

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

“
The past is a phantom, the future a dream, the present alone is real.

—Alexander HerzenThinker, Writer & Revolutionary

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
We all come from dust and to dust we must return. But we got something to do here.

—Earl LovelaceNovelist & Playwright

Digital Age ERA • Caribbean

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