# Block quotations


Markdown uses email conventions for quoting blocks of text.
A block quotation is one or more paragraphs or other block elements
(such as lists or headings), with each line preceded by a `>` character
and an optional space. (The `>` need not start at the left margin, but
it should not be indented more than three spaces.)

    > This is a block quote. This
    > paragraph has two lines.
    >
    > 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
    > 2. Second item.

A "lazy" form, which requires the `>` character only on the first
line of each block, is also allowed:

    > This is a block quote. This
    paragraph has two lines.

    > 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
    2. Second item.

Among the block elements that can be contained in a block quote are
other block quotes. That is, block quotes can be nested:

    > This is a block quote.
    >
    > > A block quote within a block quote.

If the `>` character is followed by an optional space, that space
will be considered part of the block quote marker and not part of
the indentation of the contents.  Thus, to put an indented code
block in a block quote, you need five spaces after the `>`:

    >     code

### Extension: `blank_before_blockquote` ###

Original Markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a
block quote.  Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at
the beginning of the document). The reason for the requirement
is that it is all too easy for a `>` to end up at the beginning
of a line by accident (perhaps through line wrapping). So,
unless the `markdown_strict` format is used, the following does
not produce a nested block quote in pandoc:

    > This is a block quote.
    >> Not nested, since `blank_before_blockquote` is enabled by default

