There are many well-known quotes in Richard II – here we've listed a few of them, in order of appearance in the play.
Forget, forgive, conclude and be agreed:
Our doctors say this is no time to bleed.
(King Richard, Act 1 Scene 1)
We were not born to sue, but to command.
(King Richard, Act 1 Scene 1)
King Richard: Why uncle, thou hast many years to live.
Gaunt: But not a minute, king, that thou canst give.
(Act 1 Scene 3)
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars.
(Gaunt, Act 2 Scene 1)
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
(Gaunt, Act 2 Scene 1)
Landlord of England art thou and not king.
(Gaunt, Act 2 Scene 1)
The ripest fruit first falls.
(King Richard, Act 2 Scene 1)
Come, lords, away.
To fight with Glendower and his complices;
A while to work and after holiday.
(Bullingbrook, Act 3 Scene 1)
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king.
(King Richard, Act 3 Scene 2)
For heaven’s sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
(King Richard, Act 3 Scene 2)
See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
As doth the blushing discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east.
(Bullingbrook, Act 3 Scene 3)
What must the king do now? Must he submit?
The King shall do it.
(Richard, Act 3 Scene 3)
Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-plucked Richard, who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand.
(York, Act 4 Scene 1)
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown.
(Richard, Act 4 Scene 1)
The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed
The shadow of your face.
(Bullingbrook, Act 4 Scene 1)
Doubly divorced? Bad men, ye violate
A twofold marriage, 'twixt my crown and me
And then betwixt me and my married wife.
(King Richard, Act 5 Scene 1)
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
(King Richard, Act 5 Scene 5)
For now the devil that told me I did well
Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
This dead king to the living king I'll bear. –
Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.
(Exton, Act 5 Scene 5)
Though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murd’rer, love him murdered.
(King Henry, Act 5 Scene 6)
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand.
(King Henry, Act 5 Scene 6)