Wikiquote:Quotability

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Quotability determines whether a quote appears in Wikiquote. There is no absolute test for the inclusion of either a page or a specific quote. However, there are a number of factors to be weighed in determining whether either deserves a place in this compendium. The weight given to some factors varies depending upon whether the subject of the page is (a) a person or fictional character, (b) a book, film, or other work, or (c) a theme.

The quotability factors include:

1. Is the quote verifiably sourced?
2. Is the quote original to the author to whom or work to which it is being attributed?
3. Is the subject of the quote a notable subject? Is it about a broad theme of the human experience such as Love, Justice, or Loneliness? Or is it about a narrow or mundane topic, like porcupines, lunch meat, or that new car smell? If the quote is about a mundane topic, does the author have particular expertise on that topic? If the quote is about another person, is that other person highly notable?
4. Is the author or work from which the quote comes notable? If so, are they very notable, moderately notable, barely notable? Are they notable as a source of quotes (i.e., as a poet, pundit, or Yogi Berra)?
5. Is the quote particularly witty, pithy, wise, eloquent, or poignant?
6. Is the quote independently well known? Has it withstood, or is it likely to withstand, the test of time?

Otherwise quotable material may be subject to copyright, page length, and other limitations discussed at Wikiquote:Limits on quotations.

Verification factor

See also: Wikiquote:Sourcing

Anyone can attribute a quote to a notable person. Hence, the association of a person's name to a quote provides no proof of a genuine connection. Verification must come from a citation to the author's work or a reputable, independent, and unbiased secondary source that attributes the quote to that author.

Examples of suitable secondary sources include contemporaneous newspaper or other eyewitness reports. The presence of a quote in a published collection of quotations offers strong evidence of the quote's fame and endurance. However, because such collections occasionally misattribute quotes, they do not provide sufficient evidence of a quote's origination with the purported author. Even less reliable are quotes appearing in a collection of quotations on another website that contain only the quote and the purported author's name.

Quotes attributed to "anonymous" are an exception to the verification factor. However, to appear in Wikiquote such quotes must meet other quotability requirements including fame and endurance.

Placement of verified quotes depends on whether they are:

(a) sourced to an original speech, book, interview, film, or other work ("Quotes"),

(b) not sourced to an original work but found in a reputable secondary source ("Attributed"), or

(c) widely associated with an author or work but sourced to another author or work ("Misattributed").

Quotes widely attributed to the author or work but not sourced to an original work or reputable secondary publication should appear as the first entry on the Discussion page {"Unsourced"}.

Originality factor

A quote should be attributed to the person who coined it or the work in which it first appeared. Many works use stock phrases such as:

• Let's get out of here!

This particular phrase has been reported at least as early as William M. Bobo, Glimpses of New York City (1852), p. 191. It may well have been used elsewhere before that. Such phrases are by their nature not original to later works. Although such stock quotes may be included on a general page about a theme that they address, they should not be included on the page for a later work that is merely repeating the quote, or for the author of such a later work. Trivial variations (such as "let's get out of here, Joe", "let's get the heck out of here" or "let's get out of this place") would also not sufficiently original to include on the pages of later works.

There are two primary exceptions to this rule. The first is where the occurrence of such a phrase as part of a larger section of dialogue, for which inclusion of the phrase is necessary to display the entire context of the discussion. The second is where the quote has become so widely associated with a person or a work that it merits inclusion for the very purpose of explaining that its actual origination lies elsewhere.

Subject matter factor

Notability of subject

A quote is more likely to be deemed quotable if it is about a notable subject. Certain subjects, such as Love and Birth, are universally known, and are the topic of frequent comment. Quotes on a less notable subject may still merit inclusion, but they must be shown to have a stronger case for inclusion based on factors such as the notability of the speaker and the quality of the quote itself. See, for example, quotes included in Hippopotamus.

With regards to quotes about people, notability of a person as the subject of quote can be even more difficult to quantify, but it is clear that a person may be notable as a subject, even if that person has said nothing quotable.

Quotes containing criticism of other people

There are certainly notable quotes in which one person criticizes another. However, because of the potential for abuse of this project, such quotes receive high scrutiny. For a critical quote to be included, the following conditions must be considered:

1. Is the author of the quote a highly notable person?
2. Is the subject of the quote a highly notable person?
3. Was the quote made less than ten years ago?
4. Are either the author or the subject deceased?
5. Is the quote itself particularly novel and original?
6. Is the quote itself unusually pithy, witty, wise, eloquent, or poignant?
7. Is the quote verifiably sourced?

These factors are weighed in concert. A criticism recently attributed to a living person of minor notability against another living person of minor notability will not be included.

If a critical quote which goes against the weight of the above criteria is inserted into a page, it may be removed with reference to this page.

Notability of author or work factor

To appear on author's page. Notability is necessary, but not sufficient, for a page on a person. The fact that a person meets the notability requirements for inclusion of a page on that person in Wikipedia does not mean that this person is quotable. A person may in fact be highly notable for reasons unrelated to authorship of quotes, and yet never say a single thing worth quoting. An individual's notability will be weighed more heavily if they are notable as a source of quotes. For example, a famous poet or pundit is more likely to be quotable than a famous baseball player – unless that baseball player is someone like Yogi Berra, known for memorable comments.

A famous quote that is sourced to an otherwise little-known person may justify the existence of a page on that person. However, in order to insure that the quote itself is sufficiently famous for this purpose, it will be scrutinized heavily with respect to having withstood the test of time, as discussed below.

Quotes which pithily express everyday realities (e.g. "A fool and his money are soon parted"; "Measure twice, cut once"; "He who laughs last, laughs best") may become proverbs, sayings, or aphorisms. An author may be notable as the originator of such sayings, but more frequently they arise from sources now unknown, and may be included in pages on proverbs, or on the themes reflected in the quote.

To appear on a theme page. Notability of the author is not required for a quote to be included in a page on a theme. It is the quote itself that must be notable. Thus, a particularly poignant or witty quote may be included even if the identity of the author is unknown. However, there are some circumstances under which an otherwise uninteresting quote becomes interesting because of the identity of the author. For example, if your neighborhood greengrocer (or even if a well-known movie star) says "golf is the most boring sport to watch, I don't know why they even put it on TV", there is nothing particularly quotable about that opinion. However, if the same comment were made by a world-famous competitive golfer, who frequently appeared in televised golf games, this quote would suddenly take on a different significance.

To appear on non-author's page. Individual notability of the author is required for a quote about another person to be included in a page on that other person. See Subject matter factor above.

Artfulness factor

Quality

It may be a very difficult and very subjective determination to say that one quote is "quotable" while another is not.

As Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously wrote:

Prose is words in their best order;

Poetry is the best words in their best order.

Where the author is highly notable, the inclusion of less literate statements by that author may be justified. Where the speaker is of little notability, we seek the witty, the pithy, the wise, the eloquent, and the poignant expressions. How a quote is weighed under this factor is a very subjective decision, which may be determined by consensus of the community.

For a quote from a poem or other literature, the key is whether the exact words are notable. However, when quoting a scientist the notability of the underlying meaning may suffice even if the exact words the scientist used are not well known, for example Isaac Newton's statement of the laws of motion, Johannes Kepler's statement of the laws of planetary motions, or Albert Einstein's discussion of the Theory of Relativity.

Length

A quote must be long enough to convey some kind of information or sentiment, but not so long as to become a wear on the reader. Typically, the most quotable quotes are one line or two short lines. In rare cases, just a few words may become immortalized as a memorable quote: "Cogito ergo sum"; "Veni, vidi, vici"; "E=Mc²"; "Et tu, Brute?"; "Eat my shorts". It is exceedingly difficult to find quotes of less than five words in English that convey sufficient information to merit inclusion, and most such quotes will be deleted unless they can be shown to have particular cultural or historical significance.

Absent extraordinary circumstances a quote should not be more than 250 words. That's a limit, not a goal. Carefully examine excessively long quotes to determine whether all of the material reproduced is really needed.

Length of dialogues. Whole scenes from movies or television shows, or large chunks of dialogue from them, are rarely quotable. While they may seem "exciting" or "readable," they are nonetheless not quotable, and really provide only a method for fans of the film to vicariously re-live watching it. When including dialogue from a film, it is often possible to take out one character's statement as a quote of its own; if this is possible, it is preferred. Often, if this isn't possible, the interchange lacks significant quotability. A pop-culture example of this is from Gone with the Wind:

Scarlett: No! I only know that I love you.

Rhett: That's your misfortune.

Scarlett: Oh, Rhett! Rhett! Rhett, Rhett! Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?

Rhett: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Of this scene, much dialogue could be included, but the only piece of it that has really entered the pop-culture lexicon is "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Dialogue only ought be included when the interchange is quotable, terse, and/or pithy on its own (as well as understandable):

For example, from The Matrix,

Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?

Morpheus: You've never used them before.

is meaningful, sharp, understandable, and even beyond that, has some "philosophical" quotability. Its delivery necessitates the use of dialogue.

Plot revelations and other story-related statements are typically not quoteworthy for the general Wikiquote audience unless the words themselves mean something outside of the immediate context. Dialogue sections often stem from this: remember, we collect words that stand on their own, not just important plot points from stories. One exception to this is if some particular interchange in a film became exherently famous; thus, while it may not be quotable in the traditional sense, it is still significant (and therefore quotable, as it has been oft quoted). Such dialogue can come from frequent media usage, references in other sources, or even from a piece of material that is often parodied. An example of this is Kirk's exclamation "Khhhhaaaaaaaan!!!" from Star Trek:The Wrath of Khan. While not quotable by any traditional standards, the exclamation has entered the pop-culture lexicon as a frequently alluded to and oft-parodied "quote."

Notability of quote factor

Fame

Only quotes widely repeated in secondary and tertiary sources should appear in Wikiquote. Some notable people have a gift of language and produce many high quality statements and phrases. But that is not enough to warrant inclusion here.

Endurance

The older a quote is, the more likely it is that the quote has the characteristics that maintain the relevance of that quote in the public mind over the course of many generations. When evaluating the quotability of a quote, there must be a good case for believing that this quote will be of interest to people living ten, a hundred, perhaps even a thousand years from now.

Therefore, the more recent the creation of a quote, the less likely that it is quotable. As a guideline, any quote made within the past ten years will be scrutinized under the presumption that it is not inherently quotable. This presumption may be overcome if the other factors set forth on this page weigh heavily in favor of quotability; for example, if the author of the quote is highly notable and frequently quoted, or if the quote received extensive coverage or has itself been adopted and repeated by other notable persons.

By contrast, a quote that continues to be reported or repeated after over one hundred years have passed will be presumed to be quotable.

See also

• Wikiquote:Wikiquote, policy page defining Wikiquote as "an accurate and comprehensive collection of notable quotations."
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources