carpe diem
Seize the day — make use of today rather than counting on tomorrow.
“The sun is out and we have the day off. Carpe diem.”
“She left the firm at fifty and opened the bakery, on a carpe diem impulse she never once regretted.”
“Carpe diem gets printed on posters as an argument for grand gestures, when the poem it comes from is recommending you open the good wine tonight instead of saving it for an occasion that may not arrive.”
Horace ends the eleventh ode of his first book with the phrase. He is talking to a woman called Leuconoe who has been consulting astrologers about how long she will live, and his advice is to stop: strain the wine, cut back your long hopes, and carpe diem — quam minimum credula postero, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.
Carpe is not a military verb. It is what you do to fruit and flowers: pluck, pick, gather. The instruction is to take today the way you would take a ripe apple off a branch, because it will not be there later.
English usually reads it as a licence to be bold — quit the job, book the flight. Horace meant something quieter and rather sadder: a good dinner tonight, because the future is not yours to plan with.
Horace, Virgil and Cicero, still quoted in the original.
- 01
tempus fugit (idiom)
Time flies — said when far more of it has gone than you expected.
Virgil, Georgics.
- 02
memento mori (idiom)
A reminder that you are going to die, and that this should change how you spend the time.
The warning in the chariot.
- 03
in vino veritas (idiom)
People say what they actually think once they have had a drink.
Pliny the Elder.
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festina lente (idiom)
Make haste slowly — move quickly, but never faster than you can do it properly.
Augustus' favourite motto.
- 05
to err is human (idiom)
Making mistakes is part of being a person, so a mistake alone is not a scandal.
Cicero, then Pope.
- 06
homo homini lupus (idiom)
Man is a wolf to man — people are dangerous to each other.
Plautus, Asinaria.
Last updated August 3, 2026