Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
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"I hate a Roman named Status Quo!" he said to me. "Stuff your eyes with wonder," he said, "live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."
Context
In this quote from Fahrenheit 451, Granger is talking to our protagonist Montag—just before they witness the cities going up in flames.
Granger is discussing the importance of leaving your mark on the world, and he's doing so via the words of his grandfather.
Think of this quote as a mixture of carpe diem and a sort of nature-over-artifice message.
How so? Well, coming from such a controlled environment, Montag has not been able to appreciate the natural world before; every experience in the city was dulled by the complete control of the government.
But now that Montag is out, Granger suggests that he takes everything in while he can. Of course, seeing as his entire city was destroyed and he's now living in the woods with a bunch of weird intellectual runaways with photographic memory tricks…he doesn't really have much of a choice.
Where you've heard it
People like to drop this when they mean "carpe diem."
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
What Granger's grandfather is saying is simple: go live, go experience. Just do it.