Cape Dium~ Seize the Day !

“Cape Dium” Its Latin phrase. It means "seize the day, treasure every moment"

Sometimes I met some words or phrases coincidently in totally different places.

“Cape Dium” is one of this sort of case.

Yesterday when I saw the TV show " Grey's Anatomy" , one of the intern-doctor George saw a man fall from 5th floor but that man survived! It is a miracle. George is a innocent person, a little bit childish, he did the operation for the “miracle man”extremely happy. And he just started talking “Cape Dium! Cape Dium! seize the day!”with a creepy sound to everyone there.



When I saw this scene, I was laughing because I remember George was imitating Robin Williams from the movie “Dead Poets Society”, the first time I heard“Cape Dium. Seize the day!”

Robin Williams's character, Mr. Keating, is a unique teacher in“Dead Poets Society”, they are in a extremely strict boarding school. Mr. Keating try to teach his students they have more choices and he inspired them to pursuit what kind of life they want. The class visit the history hall of the school honor but Mr. Keating mention that “No matter how good they were, those people dead already.” So he said to the students“Cape Dium. Seize the day! Because after many years, everyone die!”


“Dead Poets Society”is a eighteen years old movie. I watched it twice, the first time with Chinese subtitle was many years ago, the other was in English subtitle in New Zealand. If I didn't watched it again in New Zealand this year, it is impossible I knew the Latin phrase.