Wikimedia press releases/Facts & Figures/Wikiquote

Note: Page Under Construction

Wikiquote is a free, online compendium of quotations from notable people and creative works in every language. Currently, the English version has 9,832 pages with thousands of quotations and proverbs.

• Currently, translations of non-English quotes, links to Wikipedia for information.

Started on June 27, 2003. It was originally temporarily hosted on the Wolof wiki, a wiki dedicated to the Wolof ethnic group of Senegal, but was then moved on July 10 to the Wikipedia server.

By the end of the month, July 31st 2003, there were 172 entries, 10 confessed Wikiquotians, and 48 registered users.

One month later, on August 31st 2003, there were 339 pages, 18 confessed Wikiquotians, and 105 registered users. On August 1, 2004, there were over 300 registered users and 27 confessed Wikiquotians.

Quotations are at once mundane and sublime. Whatever the philosophical stance of those who say them, and from whatever country, race, or religion they come; whether they be serious or whimsical; whether the authors are famous or infamous, controversial or celebrated: viewed in the right light quotations are sparkling gems of wisdom in a handful of well-chosen words.

They can inspire us to seek to understand the people that uttered them, to consider the course of our own lives, to laugh, or merely to admire their mastery of language. However we use them, they will exist forever as a summary of the collective insights of society, communal knowledge passed on from one generation to the next.