100+ MLA Block Quote Examples: Perfect Copywriting & Formatting Guide

When analyzing Shakespeare’s Hamlet, consider: “To be, or not to be, that is the question— / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles” (Shakespeare 3.1.58–61).

In discussing narrative voice, cite: “The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky, except that the sea was slightly creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in it” (Woolf 12).

For symbolism in Fitzgerald: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180).

On character motivation: “He wanted nothing from her but to look on her and be in her presence” (Hemingway 45).

Exploring setting: “The road was dusty and white, stretching ahead like a ribbon laid across the desert” (Steinbeck 7).

Analyzing tone: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness” (Dickens 1).

Regarding irony: “Call me Ishmael” (Melville 1), a simple phrase that opens a vast epic of obsession and fate.

On imagery: “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” (Eliot 15–16).

Discussing theme: “She had always known that there was something missing, though she could never name it” (Atwood 98).

For foreshadowing: “He did not know then that it would be the last time he saw her alive” (Oates 67).

On internal conflict: “I am not sure what I believe anymore, only that I must keep moving forward” (Salinger 112).

Highlighting metaphor: “Time is a knife, slicing moments into memory and oblivion” (Plath 33).

Kant argues: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” (Kant 30).

Nietzsche proclaims: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him” (Nietzsche 125).

Descartes reflects: “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes 76).

Sartre states: “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself” (Sartre 43).

Mill writes: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” (Mill 50).

Aristotle notes: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” (Aristotle 35).

Plato observes: “The measure of a man is what he does with power” (Plato 20).

Hume claims: “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions” (Hume 45).

Wittgenstein asserts: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” (Wittgenstein 12).

Freud explains: “The ego is not master in its own house” (Freud 88).

Camus declares: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide” (Camus 3).

Locke reasons: “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom” (Locke 55).

Lincoln stated: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty” (Lincoln 1).

King wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King 4).

Jefferson declared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” (Jefferson 1).

Churchill proclaimed: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds” (Churchill 12).

Paine argued: “These are the times that try men’s souls” (Paine 3).

Frederick Douglass questioned: “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” (Douglass 7).

Susan B. Anthony asserted: “I shall never stand at any man’s feet, pleading for rights already mine” (Anthony 9).

Thomas More imagined: “I give you a country where no man is master, and no man slave” (More 45).

Abigail Adams urged: “Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors” (Adams 2).

W.E.B. Du Bois observed: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line” (Du Bois 13).

Emmeline Pankhurst demanded: “We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers” (Pankhurst 6).

Malcolm X said: “We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being” (Malcolm X 22).

Darwin proposed: “From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved” (Darwin 490).

Einstein explained: “The speed of light in vacuum is constant and independent of the motion of the source” (Einstein 23).

Watson and Crick noted: “It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material” (Watson 12).

Curie observed: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood” (Curie 5).

Hawking theorized: “Black holes are not as black as they are painted” (Hawking 87).

Feynman stated: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics” (Feynman 145).

Sagan reflected: “We are made of star-stuff” (Sagan 32).

Newton wrote: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” (Newton 7).

Mendel discovered: “Traits are inherited in discrete units, not blended” (Mendel 18).

Galileo claimed: “And yet it moves” (Galileo 9).

Lovelace predicted: “The engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music” (Lovelace 21).

Pasteur affirmed: “Chance favors the prepared mind” (Pasteur 33).

Frost wrote: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference” (Frost 18–20).

Whitman proclaimed: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume” (Whitman 1–2).

Dickinson mused: “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul— / And sings the tune without the words—” (Dickinson 1–3).

Blake asked: “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night; / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake 1–4).

Yeats envisioned: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (Yeats 1–2).

Poe intoned: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” (Poe 1–2).

Browning confessed: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” (Browning 1–2).

Tennyson lamented: “Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, / Tears from the depth of some divine despair” (Tennyson 1–2).

Keats admired: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know” (Keats 49–50).

Wordsworth recalled: “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills” (Wordsworth 1–2).

Auden mourned: “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, / Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone” (Auden 1–2).

Hughes dreamed: “Hold fast to dreams / For if dreams die / Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly” (Hughes 1–4).

The Bible says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish” (John 3.16).

The Quran teaches: “And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things, and as guidance, mercy, and good news” (Quran 16:89).

The Bhagavad Gita instructs: “Whenever dharma declines and the rise of adharma occurs, I manifest Myself” (Gita 4.7).

The Torah commands: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

Buddha taught: “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment” (Dhammapada 3).

Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5.9).

Muhammad stated: “The best among you are those who have the best manners and character” (Hadith, Bukhari).

Confucius advised: “Do not impose on others what you do not desire for yourself” (Analects 15.24).

The Upanishads reveal: “Tat Tvam Asi—Thou art That” (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7).

St. Augustine prayed: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You” (Confessions 1.1).

Guru Nanak proclaimed: “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I will follow God’s path” (Guru Granth Sahib 1136).

Paul wrote: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast” (1 Corinthians 13.4).

Kennedy challenged: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country” (Kennedy 1).

Obama inspired: “Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can” (Obama 2008).

Churchill rallied: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” (Churchill 1940).

Pericles praised: “Powerful indeed are the attractions of honor that incite us to face danger voluntarily” (Pericles 2.43).

Cicero warned: “O tempora, o mores! Shame on the age and its morals!” (Cicero 1.1).

De Gaulle declared: “France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war” (De Gaulle 1940).

Nkrumah proclaimed: “Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa” (Nkrumah 1957).

Mandela affirmed: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination” (Mandela 1994).

Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world” (Gandhi 1913).

Reagan urged: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Reagan 1987).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton demanded: “We claim our rights as women, citizens of this republic” (Seneca Falls 1848).

Solzhenitsyn warned: “Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence” (Solzhenitsyn 1974).

In *The Godfather*, Don Vito Corleone says: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” (*The Godfather*).

Yoda teaches: “Do or do not. There is no try” (*The Empire Strikes Back*).

Vader reveals: “Luke, I am your father” (*The Empire Strikes Back*).

Rocky Balboa says: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” (*Rocky*).

Forrest Gump reflects: “Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get” (*Forrest Gump*).

Tony Stark declares: “I am Iron Man” (*Iron Man*).

Neo is told: “There is no spoon” (*The Matrix*).

Walter White asserts: “I am the one who knocks” (*Breaking Bad*).

Clarice Starling asks: “Would you say you were angry?” (*The Silence of the Lambs*).

Jack Dawson promises: “I’ll never let go, Rose” (*Titanic*).

Dory reminds: “Just keep swimming” (*Finding Nemo*).

Michael Scott jokes: “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious” (*The Office*).

Smith argues: “The paradigm shift in cognitive science has redefined human learning models” (Smith 145).

Johnson et al. conclude: “Longitudinal data indicates a 30% increase in retention with active learning strategies” (Johnson 78).

Lee finds: “Urban green spaces correlate strongly with reduced stress levels in adults” (Lee 203).

Brown states: “Digital literacy is now a prerequisite for full societal participation” (Brown 91).

Davis observes: “Algorithmic bias perpetuates systemic inequalities in hiring practices” (Davis 56).

Taylor writes: “Postmodern narratives challenge linear historiography” (Taylor 112).

Nguyen reports: “Bilingual children show enhanced executive function compared to monolingual peers” (Nguyen 67).

Clark emphasizes: “Peer review remains the cornerstone of academic integrity” (Clark 34).

Rodriguez notes: “Climate migration is expected to displace over 200 million people by 2050” (Rodriguez 89).

Kim concludes: “Early childhood intervention yields long-term educational benefits” (Kim 102).

Adams argues: “Social media algorithms amplify political polarization” (Adams 133).

Wright finds: “Sleep deprivation negatively impacts decision-making accuracy by 42%” (Wright 77).

Anne Frank wrote: “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart” (Frank 15 July 1944).

Virginia Woolf reflected: “I need to write about death, and then it is finished” (Woolf Diary, 1941).

Nelson Mandela noted: “A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination” (Mandela Letter, 1975).

Emily Dickinson mused: “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, / And mourners to and fro kept treading” (Dickinson Poem 340).

Che Guevara recorded: “Hatred is as necessary as the oxygen” (Guevara Diary, Congo).

Kafka confessed: “I am separated from all things by a hollow space” (Kafka Diary, 1913).

Beethoven wrote: “I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me” (Beethoven Letter, 1802).

Mary Shelley described: “Dreamt that my little baby came to life again” (Shelley Journal, 1815).

Thoreau observed: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately” (Thoreau 5).

Helen Keller wrote: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched” (Keller 23).

Rilke advised: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart” (Rilke 8).

Van Gogh shared: “I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process” (Van Gogh Letter, 1888).