Person 2: Just because I don’t want to snort your drug of choice doesn’t mean I don’t want to do anything. Take in the pleasures of the moment! Carpe diem! Come on, take the bull by the horns! You never know what could happen. That’s practically the existential crime of the century. Person 2: Don’t use proverbs and metaphors against me, Collins. Do you want to get to your 81st birthday and realize you’ve done nothing? Person 1: Come on, let’s ditch journalism class and go to the party! Carpe diem, right? All the teacher will give you is a smack on the wrist. What Are Example Sentences Containing Carpe Diem? Many phrases have similar meanings to carpe diem. This modern world of aggressive action is the antithesis of what Horace meant by carpe diem. In our instant-gratification-obsessed consumer culture, the act of seizing the day refers to sleep deprivation, precarious economic lifestyles, and other abstract things and commodities that supposedly make self-reliant individuals better than others. While carpe diem started out as a phrase from Horace that encouraged people to appreciate their life experiences, it has since been co-opted as a phrase related to a mentality of industrialism and a person’s pursuit of their own happiness rather than the greater good. Different people might use the Latin carpe diem as a justification to go after a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with little thought or for other different things.
The phrase carpe diem is pronounced “ˈkɑːpɪ ˈdiːɛm.” This phrase is often used in the present time as an interjection. The literal translation of carpe diem is “seize the day.” This Latin phrase, though it comes from a long-dead language, is still used in modern English as its original Latin.