Quotations from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Famous Quotations from Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is packed with unforgettable quotations that have become a part of present-day culture. Here are the ten most famous of them all. Please visit the Romeo and Juliet main page for full explanatory notes.

1.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
(2.2.45-6), Juliet

2.
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
(2.2.35), Juliet

3.
A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me!
(3.1.95-6), Mercutio

4.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
(2.2.2-3), Romeo

5.
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.
(Prologue, 7)

6.
Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
(2.2.197-8), Juliet

7.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
(2.2.23-5), Romeo

8.
Thus with a kiss I die.
(5.3.121), Romeo

9.
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.
(1.5.43-45), Romeo

10.
O happy dagger!
(5.3.175), Juliet

Honorable Mention

Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
(3.2.21-5), Juliet

A fool's paradise.
(2.4.159), Nurse

How fares my Juliet? that I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
(5.1.15-16), Romeo to Balthasar

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
(2.2.127-8), Juliet

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