Wikiquote:FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions on the English Wikiquote.

How do I find a specific quote?

Q: How do I find a specific quote (for example, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.")?

A: Find the box with "Search Wikiquote" in light gray type, enter the quote in that box, and hit "return." You will see a list of articles that contain the closest matches to your quote. Click on the articles and use your browser's find function to find the quote on the page. The example above yields several articles, the first of which is Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and browser-searching the page itself shows this comes from Sonnet 43 of her Sonnets from the Portuguese.

When the Wikimedia servers are heavily loaded, this search feature may be temporarily disabled. You can also find quotes in Wikiquote by using general search engines and including "wikiquote" in the text to search for. (Many non-Wikiquote sites may also appear because they use Wikiquote as their source. Of course, we recommend you go straight to the source.) For Google, you can append the text "site:wikiquote.org" to your search string to narrow the search to Wikiquote only.

How do I start a new article?

Q: How do I add new articles to Wikiquote—for example, quotations by people who do not already exist here?

A: Comprehensive documentation exists at Help:Starting a new page. The easiest way is to use one of the buttons at the inputbox section to be launched straight into the editing page with a ready boilerplate. If you choose one of the other ways listed there, see Wikiquote:Templates for common formatting standards here.

Can I add a quote when I don't know who said it?

Q: Is it acceptable to add quotes which you had come across on the internet and are relatively unattributed?

A: Yes, those should be added under Anonymous, but it is suggested that you do a search of that quote to see if you can find who said it.

Can I add a clever quote from my friend?

Q: What about non-famous-quotes: my neighbour Rizwan says something profound; can I put it up here, crediting it to him?

A: Unless your neighbour is notable, probably not. However, you are free to collect quotes of yourself, people you know and notable people on your user page, and organize them however you like.

I've spotted vandalism on an article. What should I do?

Q: Is there a place within Wikiquote to call attention to vandalism—and what can be done against it?

A: When vandalism is obvious anyone can simply revert the edits that have been made by calling up the history of the article, clicking to edit the last version before the vandalism occurred, and saving that. If you believe that blocking, or other protective measures should be taken, you can post on the Vandalism in progress page and/or notify an admin on their talk pages. More information on possible responses exist in the Wikipedia article "Dealing with vandalism".

How can I find out what other editors mean when they use abbreviations?

Q: What do all those cryptic abbreviations, like VP and VFD, mean?

A: Many Wikiquote maintenance and operation pages have long descriptive titles, like Wikiquote:Votes for deletion, so people often abbreviate them. Many of these abbreviations have handy shortcuts that can be typed into the Search box to jump right to the page. A partial list of these shortcuts can be found at Wikiquote:Shortcuts.

What should I do when I find a misattribution?

Q: I came across a quote popularly misattributed to person X in his page. Should I remove it?

A: No, please! Add that quote to a section "Misattributed", and add any and all information you have regarding the history of the misattribution. Otherwise, someone else coming across the attribution somewhere else will add it again. This way, the page becomes a resource for what quotations are wrong, as well as right. Of course, this is only when dealing with a popular misattribution. Read more here.

Why isn't this site called "Wikiquotation"?

Q: Should this site be called "Wikiquotation", because "quote" is a verb, and "quotation" is the noun form?

A: Actually, "quote" is also a noun, per Merriam-Webster Online, Cambridge Dictionaries Online, Wiktionary, and many other dictionaries. Some consider it an informal form of "quotation", but still find it acceptable.

Can I use Wikiquote to generate random quotations for my website?

Q: Can I use Wikiquote to produce random single quotations, like the Unix program "fortune"?

A: Not directly. Wikiquote uses wiki articles for collections of quotes. There is no practical way at this time to mark each quote so that one can be "pulled" out for a fortune cookie-like saying. Programmers can, of course, use Wikiquote's data for such projects, so long as they acknowledge the source of the quotations per the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License‎.

Can I use Wikiquote material on my website?

Q: Can I use Wikiquote material for my own website, or for commercial purposes?

A: Wikiquote, just like its sister project Wikipedia, operates under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License‎ (CC-BY-SA), a "copyleft" system that allows any use of its material—free or commercial—as long as the same freedom-to-copy is maintained and credit is given for the original work (which is usually done by providing a link back to the relevant Wikiquote article). See w:Wikipedia:Copyrights for the formal policy, which also applies to Wikiquote. Creative Commons has the full text of the CC-BY-SA.

I forgot my password. How do I retrieve it?

Q: I forgot my password. Can I get it back?

A: If you entered and confirmed an email address when you created your account, you can have a new password sent to you using the "Email password" button on the login page.

Otherwise, you can create a different username with a new password.

Wikiquote does not honor requests made via email to change, clear, or reveal passwords.

I have a different question. Where can I ask it?

Q: My question is not answered here. Where can I ask?

A: If you have a question about the workings of Wikiquote, try our Village pump. If you have a general questions about a quote, try our Reference desk.