HTML <blockquote> Tag

The <blockquote> tag is used to define long quotes inside the document. Browsers usually indent <blockquote> elements.

A URL for the quotation source can be given with the cite attribute, whereas a text display of the source can be given with the <cite> element.

This is a block-level element and can include tags for text formatting.

The <blockquote> tag is placed within the <body> tag.

You can use the margin-right and/or margin-left properties, or the margin shorthand property to change indentation applied to the quoted text.

For short quotes in a document, use the <q> tag.

Syntax

The <blockquote> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<blockquote>) and closing (</blockquote>) tags.

Example of the HTML <blockquote> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    A quote from the Cheshire Cat, in the popular children's book, Alice In Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll
    <blockquote cite="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland">
      I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours. 
    </blockquote>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Example of the HTML <blockquote> tag used with the <q> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p> A quote from the Cheshire Cat, in the popular children's book, Alice In Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll</p>
    <blockquote cite="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland">
      I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours. 
    </blockquote>
    <q cite="https://www.wikiquote.org/">He who can, does, he who cannot, teaches.</q>
  </body>
</html>

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Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
cite	URL	Specifies the source of the quote. The value can be either a relative or an absolute URL.

The <blockquote> also supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <blockquote> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <blockquote> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <blockquote> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <blockquote> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <blockquote> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.