Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is not just a love story; it’s filled with powerful quotes that capture deep emotions and important lessons. Whether you’re reading it for school or just curious about the story, these quotes can help you understand the characters and their struggles. From young love to family feuds, the words in this play resonate across time and remind us of our own experiences in life.
Learning these quotes can have a meaningful impact on your daily life. They teach us about love, conflict, and the choices we make. By understanding these timeless messages, you can gain insight into your own relationships and the challenges you face.
Top Romeo and Juliet Quotes
Words of wisdom: Great lines cut to the core of human experience — love, loss, bravery, and folly. These top quotes from Romeo and Juliet have moved generations because they name feelings many of us struggle to speak aloud.
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” – Romeo
“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” – Juliet
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – Juliet
“A plague o’ both your houses!” – Mercutio
“Thus with a kiss I die.” – Romeo
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow.” – Juliet
“These violent delights have violent ends.” – Friar Laurence
“O happy dagger!” – Juliet
“My only love sprung from my only hate!” – Juliet
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” – Prince Escalus
Also Read: Best King Quotes (with Commentary)
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Love
Words of wisdom: Love can be sudden, tender, and overwhelming. These lines show how love reshapes perception, daring us to risk everything and transforming ordinary moments into lifelong memories.
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” – Romeo
“With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out.” – Romeo
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – Romeo
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.” – Juliet
“You kiss by the book.” – Juliet
“I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized.” – Romeo
“These violent delights have violent ends; therefore, love moderately.” – Friar Laurence
“Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars.” – Juliet
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night.” – Romeo
“I will kiss thy lips; haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make die with a restorative.” – Juliet
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Fate
Words of wisdom: Fate and destiny thread through this tragedy, reminding us that sometimes forces outside our control shape outcomes. Recognizing this can bring humility and deeper compassion.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.” – Chorus
“I defy you, stars!” – Romeo
“O, I am fortune’s fool!” – Romeo
“Some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this night’s revels.” – Benvolio
“Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!” – Romeo
“O, here will I set up my everlasting rest and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars.” – Juliet
“Come, civil night, thou sober-suited matron all in black, and learn me how to lose a winning match.” – Juliet
“I am the drudge and tool of poor unhappy fate.” – Friar Laurence
“The heavens do lour upon you for some ill; move them no more by crossing their high will.” – Prince Escalus
“Then I will be brief. O happy dagger!—this is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” – Juliet
Romeo And Juliet Quotes about Youth
Words of wisdom: Youth in the play is impulsive, acutely felt, and vulnerable. These quotes highlight the intensity and recklessness that often accompany young hearts and choices.
“Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” – Nurse
“They have made worms’ meat of me: I have it, and soundly too.” – Mercutio
“O, teach me how I should forget to think.” – Romeo
“I say thee nay, and will not give consent.” – Capulet
“My child is yet a stranger in the world; she hath not seen the change of fourteen years.” – Lady Capulet
“Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” – Friar Laurence
“This is that very Mab that plagues the maidens of the night.” – Mercutio
“I am sold, not yet enjoyed.” – Juliet
“I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars.” – Romeo
“O, be some other name! What’s in a name?” – Juliet
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Family and Feud
Words of wisdom: Family loyalty can inspire courage but also blind us to compassion. These lines reveal how deep-seated conflicts fuel tragedy and ripple through everyone involved.
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” – Chorus
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” – Abram
“O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” – Juliet
“Peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.” – Tybalt
“Have at thee, coward!” – Tybalt
“For you and I are past our dancing days.” – Capulet
“My sword, I say! Old Montague is come.” – Sampson
“See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” – Prince Escalus
“O, teach me how I should forget to think.” – Romeo
“We have no power to wage love, but to be free of tears.” – Benvolio
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Tragedy
Words of wisdom: Tragedy often arrives when passion collides with miscommunication. These lines confront sorrow, remorse, and the devastating consequences of choices made in haste.
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings; the sun-forlorn and stars withheld their light.” – Prince Escalus
“O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!” – Friar Laurence
“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye than twenty of their swords.” – Romeo
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” – Juliet
“They have made worms’ meat of me: I have it, and soundly too.” – Mercutio
“Sweet sorrow, that leaves no sting.” – Juliet
“The day is hot, the Capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not scape a brawl.” – Benvolio
“Here’s to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” – Romeo
“Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished.” – Prince Escalus
“We met, we woo’d, and made exchange of vow; I’ll tell thee as we pass: but this I pray, that thou consent to marry us to-day.” – Friar Laurence
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Passion
Words of wisdom: Passion can uplift and destroy. These lines reflect how intense feelings accelerate decisions, magnify flaws, and create moments of breathtaking beauty and danger.
“O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.” – Mercutio
“I am hurt. A plague o’ both your houses!” – Mercutio
“For love of God, I’ll tell thee anon.” – Nurse
“I will kiss thy lips; haply some poison yet doth hang on them.” – Juliet
“Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.” – Romeo
“O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!” – Romeo
“Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night.” – Juliet
“It is my lady; O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were!” – Romeo
“I have no joy of this contract tonight: it is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden.” – Juliet
“And yet no matter: bid her devise some means to come to shrift this afternoon.” – Friar Laurence
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Night & Time
Words of wisdom: Night and time are recurring motifs: sheltering lovers, marking moments, and pressing urgency. These lines show how time can both bless and betray human plans.
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” – Romeo
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” – Juliet
“Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow’d night.” – Juliet
“More light and light; more dark and dark our woes.” – Romeo
“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief.” – Romeo
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow—” – Friar Laurence
“Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night.” – Juliet
“Within the infant rind of this small flower poison hath residence and medicine power.” – Friar Laurence
“It was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.” – Juliet
“Give me my romeo; and when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars.” – Juliet
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Death
Words of wisdom: Death in Romeo and Juliet is tragic and poetic, forcing readers to contemplate loss and the cost of unresolved conflict. These lines confront mortality with raw intensity.
“Thus with a kiss I die.” – Romeo
“O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” – Juliet
“A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents.” – Friar Laurence
“I will lie with thee tonight.” – Romeo
“I do remember an apothecary.” – Romeo
“Take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine.” – Juliet
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” – Prince Escalus
“Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger!” – Juliet
“Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument.” – Lord Capulet
“We saw the truth too late, when death had bound our wounds.” – Friar Laurence
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Friendship
Words of wisdom: Friends provide counsel, comic relief, and sometimes cause chaos. The play’s friendships reveal loyalty, teasing honesty, and the limits of influence.
“A dog of the house of Montague moves me.” – Sampson
“Men’s eyes were made to look, not to stare; I will not budge for no man’s pleasure.” – Benvolio
“And to sink in it should you drown yourselves too.” – Mercutio
“Thy kinsmen are no stop to me.” – Tybalt
“I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword.” – Benvolio
“If love be rough with you, be rough with love; prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.” – Mercutio
“I’ll be a candle-holder and look on.” – Benvolio
“You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead.” – Romeo
“I am hurt. Mercy; help!” – Mercutio
“Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.” – Nurse
Romeo And Juliet Quotes for Students
Words of wisdom: Students can draw insight from these lines — about language, emotion, and moral complexity — to deepen understanding and inspire essays, reflections, and discussions.
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” – Romeo
“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much.” – Juliet
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” – Friar Laurence
“I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love.” – Lord Capulet
“Examine other beauties.” – Benvolio
“Parting is such sweet sorrow.” – Juliet
“The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.” – Romeo
“I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain.” – Mercutio
“You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, when I shall be a wife.” – Juliet
“These times of woe afford no time to woo.” – Paris
Romeo And Juliet Quotes about Courage
Words of wisdom: Courage in the play often appears as defiance, protection, or the resolve to face consequences. These lines speak to bravery in love and in confronting hostility.
“Tempt not a desperate man.” – Romeo
“Put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me.” – Benvolio
“I will not fail; ’tis twenty years till then.” – Friar Laurence
“I do protest, I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise.” – Romeo
“And I, for winking at your discords too, have lost a brace of kinsmen.” – Prince Escalus
“Give me my long sword, ho!” – Tybalt
“I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.” – Capulet
“I grant thee pardon; get thee to thy love.” – Friar Laurence
“Do with their dateless shoes this unable sun, / For sorrow will not show his head.” – Prince Escalus
“Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift.” – Friar Laurence
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Regret
Words of wisdom: Regret roams the play’s latter acts as characters reckon with irreversible loss. These lines reflect remorse, late realizations, and the painful cost of conflict.
“See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!” – Prince Escalus
“O, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!” – Nurse
“A single moment’s haste can shape a lifetime of sorrow.” – Friar Laurence
“My child is yet a stranger in the world; she hath not seen the change of fourteen years.” – Lady Capulet
“All are punished.” – Prince Escalus
“O me! O me! My child, my only life!” – Lord Capulet
“Affection makes me false, and I will trust to thee.” – Paris
“This is the greatest, not that I am dead, but that I have lost my friend.” – Benvolio
“We have a curse in having you for friends.” – Mercutio
“I am slain.” – Tybalt
Romeo And Juliet Quotes on Hope
Words of wisdom: Even amid tragedy, flickers of hope surface — in reconciliation, in memory, and in love’s enduring image. These lines invite us to hold gentle faith in better outcomes.
“Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine.” – Juliet
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul!” – Juliet
“To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” – Prince Escalus
“Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.” – Romeo
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” – Prince Escalus
“Love’s heralds should be thoughts, which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams.” – Romeo
“No longer will we be divided by our grudges.” – Lord Montague
“Let two more summers wither in their pride.” – Friar Laurence
“Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, the day to cheer and night’s dank dew to dry.” – Juliet
“I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo.” – Juliet
Final Thoughts
Romeo and Juliet remains timeless because its language captures extremity — the thrill of first love, the sting of betrayal, and the weight of fate. The quotes above distill those emotions into phrases that stay with us, offering comfort, challenge, and insight across centuries.
These lines help us reflect on choices, conflicts, and the power of reconciliation. Whether you’re studying the play or seeking meaningful expressions to mark your own experiences, Shakespeare’s words invite careful listening and honest feeling.
If you enjoyed this collection, explore more related topics and inspiring lines at Character Quotes and find short, shareable moments of affection at Love Quotes to keep the conversation going.