Quoterion FAQ

Quoterion FAQ

Q. What is Quoterion about?

A. Quoterion is a compilation of quotations from notable authors. Our mission is to curate accurate quotes by researching the original source of each quotation.

Quoterion was started by content creators who like to use authentic quotes from notable people to enhance our message.

But we soon realized that most of the big quotes sites and “best quotes from” articles are bogus! They lack sources and even worse, often include fabricated quotes.

We don’t want to contribute to spreading fake quotes around the internet. We put so much effort into sharing accurate information for our readers, so being sure to share accurate quotes was a non-negotiable.

Q. Why did you start Quoterion?

A. We’re a team of independent writers who saw an urgent need to not only provide a free resource for people looking for quotes with actual attributions, but also to give readers an easy way to find quotes that their favorite writers actually said.

While looking for quotes for our blogs, news articles, and Instagram posts, we noticed that almost everything coming up in Google searches was missing the most important thing—the source!

Time and time again, we’d dig into a quote and realize it wasn’t quite right. Either the words weren’t quite right, there wasn’t any proof that the person said it, or someone else (usually not as famous) originated the quote.

Q. There are lots of huge quotes sites online already! Why bother starting a new site?

A. Believe us, we asked ourselves this question over and over again before launchingQuoterion.

There are so many quotes sites online right now that it almost made zero sense to start a new one.

But we kept going back to the reason why—even the “best” quotation sites were full of junk.

We constantly saw stuff like unattributed quotes, quotes we knew were wrong, and quotes that were attributed to the wrong authors.

So much of what we saw online made no sense—like popular Oscar Wilde quotes that were dated to 2002, over 100 years after his death.

People tend to believe what they see online, and so many of these incorrect quotes are passed around—gaining more and more credibility the more they’re shared.

We’re building this for you, our readers, because this site needs to be built.

Q. How do you research your quotes?

A. We go back to the original source on every quote.

We might find a potential quote in a quote anthology book, but we then check the original source—the book, article, interview, or speech transcript where the quotation originally appeared.

Q. Why don’t you include many quotes from songs?

A. We’d love to include more quotes from song lyrics! However, song lyrics often carry special copyright protection. In most countries, song lyrics are protected by copyright for a period of time (usually 50-100 years after the artist’s death).

Q. Isn’t publishing quotes a violation of copyright law?

A. AtQuoterion we provide short quotations from notable people for educational and research purposes.

These quotes fall under Fair Use in the US, where we (and the majority of our readers) are located.

Q. Why don’t you include quotes from (insert author here)?

A. Readers sometimes ask why we don’t include quotes from specific authors.

As bibliophiles, information lovers, and haters of censorship, we asked ourselves the same thing!Isn’t it our academic duty to include quotes from all points of view?

We strive to include quotes on the site from a wide range of authors and subjects—even controversial ones.

But, we draw the line at hate speech.

Although many other popular quote sites include tons of quotes by well-known hatemongers like Adolf Hitler, we don’t.

As you’ve likely noticed,Quoterion also includes a custom shareable image with each quote.

We support free speech and the free sharing of ideas, but we couldn’t live with ourselves if we knew an image we created was being shared online to promote hatred.

Q. Can I share a quote I’ve found onQuoterion?

A. Absolutely!Quoterion doesn’t hold the copyright for any of the quotations we publish on our site.

You can share any of these quotes, but please give attribution to the original author.

If you’d like to tweet any of our quotes, we have a “Click to tweet” embedded on each page for your convenience.

Q. Can I share a quote image I’ve found onQuoterion?

A. Of course! We’ve created all of our quote images specifically for our readers to share on social media, or even on your own website or blog.

Please give attribution toQuoterion when sharing our images. You may not crop or edit our images in any way, including removing theQuoterion logo.

If you’d like to share one of our quote images on your own website, please include a clickable link to the page onQuoterion where you found the image.

However, you may not use our images for commercial purposes, like to print on products that you intend to sell.

Q. I’m not famous, but I’d like one of my own quotes to be published onQuoterion. How can I do that?

A. Quoterion’s mission is to feature quotations from notable people that highlight interesting ideas.

But notable doesn’t necessarily mean famous! If you’re a published author or well-known personality in your field, you may have some amazing quotes that our readers would enjoy.

Send your quote for consideration to editor [at] quoterion.com. Please include a verifiable source, such as a digital copy of your book or a link to where we can find it online.

(Please note thatQuoterion does not provide links back to a quote author’s website, social media, or product sales pages.)

Q. I found an error in a quote or an error in a quote’s source on the site. How can I let you know?

A. We’ll be totally honest—this isn’t really a frequently asked question (phew!) But we know we’re human and occasional errors are bound to occur from time to time.

If you’d like to let us know about a potential quotation error that you’ve found, please send an email to editor [at] quoterion.com with “Potential Quote Error” in the subject line.

Please include as much original source information as you can, such as a link to a book, newspaper/magazine article, or speech transcript.

Remember that most large quotes sites have many erroneous quotes and quote attributions—these sites are not appropriate or accurate sources for quotations.

Q. How doesQuoterion make money?

A. Ha! We don’t!Quoterion is a labor of love by our editors and is entirely self-funded.

In the future, we do plan to have limited advertising on the site to help defray the costs of website hosting.

Q. I love your site! How can I support you?

A. If you’d like to support the site so we can continue to grow, you can do so by sharing our quote images on your social media channels and by returning to the site often for more quotes!

You can also follow us on social media on Twitter and Instagram.

Q. Why don’t you include anonymous quotes?

A. Simply, if no one knows who the author is, then it can’t be called a quotation.

It may just be a commonly used phrase, an adage, or a proverb. Our goal is to collect and curate correct quotations from notable people and to always include sources.

Of course, if we discover the original author of a quote that’s commonly attributed to “Anonymous”, we’ll include it on the site!

Q. How do you decide which quote authors to include?

A. Quote authors onQuoterion need to be notable people.

Q. Why don’t you have as many quotes as the big quotes sites?

A. Many of the large quotes sites have been around for years (if not decades), and they’ve simply had more time to add lots of quotes!

But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Unlike some sites, we don’t use content scrapers to “steal” quotes from other sites. An actual human selects, researches, and enters each quote on our website.

Q. I can’t believe my favorite quote of all time isn’t on your site! How can I make sure it’s included?

A. If you have a favorite quote that you noticed isn’t onQuoterion yet, let us know! You can email us at editor [at] quoterion.com.

Or reach out via social media! Our Twitter handle is @qandquotes, and our IG is@qandquotes.

Including the source of the quotation makes it more likely that we’ll research and include your fave quote.

Q. Why do you arrange your Authors section in alphabetical order by first name? That drives me crazy!

A. Hello fellow obsessive alphabetizer—we hear you!

This was actually a tough decision for us. But by knowing exactly how people search for quotes by author, it became obvious that we had to organize this way.

Here’s an example: if you’re searching for a quote from the 42nd president of the United States, what would you type in the search engine?

It would most likely be something like “Bill Clinton quotes” or “quotes from Bill Clinton”, right?

Even if you make sure that your personal bookshelves are meticulously organized, we highly doubt that you’re typing a query in Google like “quotes from Clinton, William Jefferson”.

Because of the way that the vast majority of people search online, we can serve more readers (and help them find accurate quotes with sources!) when we alphabetize this way.

Q. How do you decide the author of your quotes?

A. Usually the answer to “who said a quote first” is easy— it’s either the first person who published a phrase in writing, or who said it first in public!

We always try to attribute the original person who wrote or said the exact words of the quote. But sometimes attribution is tricky!

As an example, NFL coach Vince Lombardi was famous for saying, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”

But, he wasn’t the first to say it. College football coach Red Sanders coined the phrase, and Lombardi later borrowed it.

So although the saying is commonly known as a Lombardi quote, credit goes to Sanders because he was the first to use it.

Q. Why do we feature blog posts with quotes about a topic, when you can just search for that topic on the site?

A. Although you can find tons of quotes about any topic by searching our Topics page on Quotes+ Quotes, reading our blog gives you insight that you wouldn’t see from just reading individual quotes.

We curate only the best quotes on individual topics in our blog posts, making them even easier for our readers to find.

Q. I have a quotes site, too! Can you link back to my website?

A. Hey, kudos to you for having another quotes site! Sorry, we only link out to other websites on rare occasions where the link is genuinely helpful to our readers. Please don’t email us asking for a link!

Q. Do you accept guest posts on your blog?

A. Sorry, no. Our editorial team is made up of seasoned bloggers and freelance writers and we know that most requests for “guest posts” are just commercial sites begging for a backlink. So no. And no again. We’ll ignore you if you email—sorry not sorry.

Q. Are you hiring quote researchers, graphic designers, or blog writers?

A. Although we’d love to hire a giant staff to get all of the best quotes of all time (with sources) available for free for everyone on the internet, we’re just a small startup.

To put it bluntly, we don’t have the budget right now to hire an outside staff.

Our in-house team does everything—research, writing, design, social media, answering emails—strictly on a volunteer basis.


Have another question that we haven’t answered here? Email us at editor [at] quoterion.com!