Home > Abakada: Back to Basics > Language References > HTML Elements > BLOCKQUOTE Element
| Represents a section quoted from another source. | HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5 |
HTML Syntax
<blockquote cite = url>
...
</blockquote>
NOTE: Both start and end tags are required.
The <blockquote> element indicates a portion of content that is quoted from another source.
A URL for the source of the quotation may be given using the cite attribute, although this citation link is primarily intended for private use by server-side scripts collecting statistics about a site’s use of quotations, not for readers.
The cite attribute does not render with the quoted content, but authors may allow users to follow a text representation of the source using the <cite> element.
Attribution for the quotation, though, must be placed outside the <blockquote> element.
Browsers generally render content within <blockquote> tags as an indented block that starts on a new line. Most browsers add extra space before a <blockquote>.
While some authors use <blockquote> merely as a mechanism to indent text, this usage has been deprecated in favor of style sheets.
<blockquote> is meant for quoting block-level content. To quote inline content with no paragraph breaks, use the <q> element.
The <blockquote> element supports the following attributes, in addition to global attributes common to all HTML elements.
| cite | URL | Specifies the source of the quotation |
The following shows how the blockquote element may be used.
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<blockquote>And this is a blockquote.</blockquote>
This is a paragraph.
And this is a blockquote.
Here, a <blockquote> element is used in conjunction with a cite attribute as well as a representation of the citation using a <cite> element.
<div>
<blockquote cite="http://somewhere.com">
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent,<br>
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition<br>
that all men are created equal.
</blockquote>
~ Abraham Lincoln, <cite>The Gettysburg Address</cite>
</div>
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent,
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.
~ Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Q