Indenting long citations inside a document?

Question

This question led to a new feature in a package:
quoting

Suppose I have a very long sentence of law text that I need to have in my document.

And according to the XYZ law:

Aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou ... aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa ou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao aaaaaa aoe oa ao oa oa aou oauoaeuoae uao.

How can I indent that clearly with italics and proper citations to make it clear that it is not my writing?

Answer 1

The basic approach would be to use the standard quote or quotation environments, with a proper redefinition to italicize the text; something along these lines:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\makeatletter
\g@addto@macro\quote\itshape
\g@addto@macro\quotation\itshape
\makeatother

\newcommand\Text{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida
mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.
Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus
et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo.}

\begin{document}

\Text\begin{quote}
``\Text''
\end{quote}
\Text
\begin{quotation}
``\Text''
\end{quotation}

\end{document}

If you want further customization, the csquotes package could be of interest.

Answer 2

My solution differs from Gonzalo's in two respects:

• Instead of switching between the quote and quotation environments, I use my quoting package and its environment of the same name. First-line indentation is controlled by adding a blank line before the environment. Italic font is achieved with the package option font=itshape.

• I do no add `` and '' several times in the text, but use the etoolbox package to patch the beginning and the end of the quoting environment. This way, one doesn't have to hunt down every instance of quotings in the text if one wants the change the environment's definition. EDIT: With quoting v 0.1b, one may simply use the begintext and endtext options.

---

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[font=itshape,begintext=``,endtext='']{quoting}

\newcommand\Text{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida
mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.
Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus
et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo.}

\begin{document}

\Text
% <--- No first-line indentation of "quoting"
\begin{quoting}
\Text
\end{quoting}
% <--- No indentation after "quoting"
\Text

\begin{quoting}
\Text
\end{quoting}

\end{document}

Answer 3

I know this is answered, but I prefer the epigraph package. Put something like the following in your preamble

\usepackage{epigraph}
\setlength{\epigraphwidth}{0.90\textwidth}

And invoke with something like the following

\epigraph
{\itshape\ldots we \emph{never} experiment with just \emph{one} electron or atom or (small) molecule. In thought-experiments we sometimes assume that we do; this invariably entails ridiculous consequences\ldots}
{\emph{Are There Quantum Jumps? Part II}\\ Erwin Schr\"odinger}

Which will give you something like this