100+ MLA Long Quote Formatting Examples: Perfect Copywriting Guide

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations, it drew him as the moon draws water.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think that old age...

Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds.”

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin.

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns, was the bravest man who ever lived.

She was born to the middle class, married briefly, then disappeared into obscurity.

The novel traces the psychological evolution of its protagonist through a series of internal monologues.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both.

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; / I know the voices dying with a dying fall.

Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –.

Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day.

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you / As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.

I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o'er vales and hills.

Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky.

Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.

My love is like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June.

I arise from dreams of thee / In the first sweet sleep of night.

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done; / The ship has weathered every rack.

We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight.

HAMLET: To be, or not to be—that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer.

LADY MACBETH: Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness.

KING LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! / You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout.

PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strained; / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.

IAGO: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock.

Rosalind: Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

VIOLA: Make me a willow cabin at your gate, / And call upon my soul within the house.

OBERON: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. / What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.

HELENA: The more I love, the more he hateth me; / His pride grows richer as my worth declines.

CLEOPATRA: Give me my robe; put on my crown; I have / Immortal longings in me.

ANTONY: I am dying, Egypt, dying; / Only I here importune death awhile.

MIRANDA: O brave new world, / That has such people in't!

According to Smith, “the rise of digital literacy has redefined traditional notions of authorship” (45).

“Cultural narratives shape identity formation in postcolonial societies,” argues Johnson (78).

As Lee observes, “the intersection of race and gender in literature demands interdisciplinary analysis” (102).

“Historical context cannot be divorced from textual interpretation,” states Thompson (33).

Brown emphasizes that “algorithmic bias reflects societal inequalities embedded in training data” (67).

“Narrative structure influences reader empathy,” notes Garcia (89).

“The canonization of texts often excludes marginalized voices,” asserts Patel (112).

“Digital archives democratize access but raise questions about preservation ethics,” writes Kim (54).

“Pedagogical approaches must adapt to neurodiverse learning styles,” recommends Davis (203).

“Intertextuality reveals how texts converse across time and genre,” explains Rivera (77).

“Visual rhetoric amplifies meaning beyond verbal content,” claims Foster (91).

“Language evolves fastest in online communities,” concludes Zhang (130).

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment of a grand jury.

To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.

The Constitution is not a static document but a living framework adaptable to societal change.

In times of crisis, civil liberties are often suspended in the name of national security.

The Magna Carta established the principle that no one is above the law, not even the king.

Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of democratic participation and civic engagement.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country” — John F. Kennedy.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” — Eleanor Roosevelt.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” — Nelson Mandela.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” — Mahatma Gandhi.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it” — Nelson Mandela.

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it” — Abraham Lincoln.

“Democracy is not a state. It is an act” — John Lewis.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world” — Margaret Mead.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” — Mark 12:31.

“The unexamined life is not worth living” — Socrates.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — Matthew 7:12.

“Happiness depends upon ourselves” — Aristotle.

“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart” — Buddha.

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself” — Jean-Paul Sartre.

“God helps those who help themselves” — Benjamin Franklin.

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord” — Romans 12:19.

“Know thyself” — Inscription at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing” — Socrates.

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without” — Buddha.

“Existence precedes essence” — Jean-Paul Sartre.

“Climate change is unequivocally driven by human activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions” (IPCC, 2023).

“CRISPR technology enables precise gene editing with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency” (Zhang et al., 45).

“Neural networks simulate human cognition by processing data through layered algorithms” (Lee & Park, 112).

“Quantum entanglement challenges classical notions of causality and locality” (Nielsen, 78).

“The Higgs boson confirms the existence of the field that gives particles mass” (CERN Report, 33).

“Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health crisis fueled by misuse” (WHO, 2022).

“Photosynthesis converts solar energy into chemical energy stored in glucose” (Biology Textbook, 89).

“Machine learning models improve with larger, diverse datasets” (Chen, 105).

“Dark matter constitutes approximately 27% of the universe’s mass-energy” (NASA, 2021).

“mRNA vaccines represent a breakthrough in immunological response design” (CDC, 67).

“Ocean acidification threatens marine biodiversity and food security” (UNEP, 144).

“The double helix structure of DNA enables replication and genetic transmission” (Watson & Crick, 5).

I was born in a small village with no electricity, where stories were told by firelight.

Every morning, my grandmother boiled water over an open flame and sang old folk songs.

The war changed everything—my home, my family, even the way I saw the sky.

I carried my books in a burlap sack and walked five miles to the nearest school.

At sixteen, I boarded a plane for the first time, trembling with fear and hope.

My mother’s hands were cracked from labor, but they always found a way to comfort me.

I didn’t learn English until I was twelve, but I dreamed in it before I spoke it.

The city overwhelmed me with noise, lights, and people who never looked up.

I wrote my first poem on the back of a grocery receipt during a power outage.

Loss taught me that grief is not a wall but a bridge to memory.

I kept my father’s letters in a shoebox under my bed for twenty years.

Home is not a place but a feeling carried in the bones.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, unavoidable.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms.

Big Brother is watching you.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.

I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe.

The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is forty-two.