Using quotations can add depth and insight to your writing. However, referencing these quotes accurately in any academic work is crucial, and the Modern Language Association (MLA) format is one of the most commonly used styles. This article serves as a comprehensive guide to citing quotes in MLA format, replete with expertly curated famous quotes under each section to give you a sense of the depth and variety of notable quotations that can enrich your work.
Understanding the Basics of MLA Format for Quotes
"The first step is you have to say that you can." - Will Smith
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." - Lao Tzu
"The purpose of our lives is to be happy." - Dalai Lama
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney
"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." - Mark Twain
"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet." - Sarah Louise Delany
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
"We do not remember days, we remember moments." - Cesare Pavese
In-text Citations: A Closer Look at Quotes
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." - Elbert Hubbard
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost
"Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
"To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people just exist." - Oscar Wilde
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." - André Gide
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." - Marilyn Monroe
"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." - Aristotle
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West
"The mind is everything. What you think you become." - Buddha
"The best way out is always through." - Robert Frost
Quoting Poetry: The MLA Approach
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep." - Robert Frost
"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul." - Emily Dickinson
"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - Dylan Thomas
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by." - Robert Frost
"April is the cruellest month." - T.S. Eliot
"I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills." - William Wordsworth
"Because I could not stop for Death — He kindly stopped for me." - Emily Dickinson
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." - T.S. Eliot
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate." - William Shakespeare
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night." - William Blake
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." - John Keats
"If I should meet thee after a long year, how should I greet thee?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Quoting Prose: Following MLA Guidelines
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens
"Call me Ishmael." - Herman Melville
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Jane Austen
"Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien
"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then." - Lewis Carroll
"Brave New World." - Aldous Huxley
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Leo Tolstoy
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"To be, or not to be, that is the question." - William Shakespeare
"A room without books is like a body without a soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero
Integrating Block Quotes in MLA Format
"To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect." - Oscar Wilde
"To thine own self be true." - William Shakespeare
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney
"If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." - John D. Rockefeller
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson
"Success is not in what you have, but who you are." - Bo Bennett
"Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - George S. Patton
"Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out." - John Wooden
"Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working." - Pablo Picasso
"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins
How to Quote Quotes Within Quotes Using MLA
"He cried, 'it's all in your mind.'" - Roberta Flack
"My philosophy is: If you can't have fun, there’s no sense in doing it." - Paul Walker
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." - Confucius
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
"The best way to predict your future is to create it." - Abraham Lincoln
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." - Wayne Gretzky
"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." - Henry Ford
"You become what you believe." - Oprah Winfrey
Mastering Parenthetical Citations for Quotes
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Mark Twain
"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." - Thomas Jefferson
"You can’t blame gravity for falling in love." - Albert Einstein
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." - Margaret Mead
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." - Plato
"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." - Confucius
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein
Citing Quotes from Multiple Authors in MLA
"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin." - Tony Robbins
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James
"Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started." - Steve Bowe
"It always seems impossible until it’s done." - Nelson Mandela
"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." - Sam Levenson
"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Stars can’t shine without darkness." - D.H. Sidebottom
"Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door." - Kyle Chandler
"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Believe you can and you’re halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt
Tips for Accurate Quotations Using MLA Format
"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln
"Whatever you do, do it well." - Walt Disney
"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." - Henry Ford
"The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others." - Hasidic proverb
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates
"Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einstein
"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." - Thomas Edison
"Limitations live only in our minds." - Robert H. Schuller
"If the wind will not serve, take to the oars." - Latin Proverb
"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." - Aristotle
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." - Steve Jobs
Examples of Famous Quotes and Their MLA Citations
"To be, or not to be, that is the question." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet
"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players." - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
"Call me Ishmael." - Herman Melville, Moby Dick
"I think, therefore I am." - René Descartes
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address
"I have a dream." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." - Genesis 1:1
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu
Final words
Citing quotes in MLA format involves following specific guidelines, whether you are quoting a book, poem, or even a famous saying. By learning to effectively use block quotes, in-text citations, and other formatting techniques, you improve the clarity and professionalism of your writing. Not only does this enhance your rhetorical skills, but it also honors the significance of the original authors. As we have explored through various famous quotes, understanding these guidelines can transform your academic writing into a more compelling narrative. By faithful adherence to these rules, you'll be able to seamlessly integrate the wisdom of others into your thoughts and arguments, supporting them in a way that is transparent and attributable. The power of quotes should never be underestimated; they can illuminate your text and elevate your argument while ensuring that due credit is given. So go ahead, apply these practices, and watch your writing resonate with authenticity and strength.
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