wikiquote

The wikiquote package for Python (>=3.8) allows you to search and retrieve quotes from any Wikiquote article, as well as retrieve the quote of the day.

Installation

You can install the wikiquote package using, for example, pip:

$ pip install --upgrade wikiquote

Usage

>>> import wikiquote

>>> wikiquote.search('The Matrix')
# ['The Matrix (film)', 'The Matrix Revolutions', 'The Matrix Reloaded', 'The Animatrix']

>>> wikiquote.quotes('The Matrix (film)', max_quotes=2) # max_quotes defaults to 20
# ['Don't think you are, know you are.', 'Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.']

>>> wikiquote.quote_of_the_day() # returns a (quote, author) tuple
# 'Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.', 'Oscar Wilde'

>>> wikiquote.qotd() # same as quote_of_the_day()

>>> wikiquote.random_titles(max_titles=3) # max_titles defaults to 20
# ['The Lion King', 'Johannes Kepler', 'Rosa Parks']

>>> wikiquote.supported_languages()
# ['de', 'en', 'es', 'eu', 'fr', 'he', 'it', 'pl', 'pt']

Some article titles will lead to a Disambiguation page (like Matrix), which will raise a DisambiguationPageException exception. Usually this happens because there are many articles matching the search term. When this happens, try using search() first, and then use one of the specific article titles found.

If the article searched for does not exist, and no similar results exist, NoSuchPageException will be raised instead.

When requesting the quote of the day, a MissingQOTDException exception will be raised if the quote of the day could not be extracted from Wikiquote's main page. This usually happens because the page's layout has been changed.

Languages

The wikiquote module currently supports the following languages:

Use the lang parameter to specify the language (defaults to en):

>>> import wikiquote

>>> wikiquote.quotes('Dune', lang='en')[0]
# 'Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.'

>>> wikiquote.quotes('Victor Hugo', lang='fr')[0]
# 'Le plus lourd fardeau, c'est d'exister sans vivre.'

>>> wikiquote.quotes('Nueve reinas', lang='es')[0]
# 'Más ofendido estás... menos sospechoso parecés.'

>>> wikiquote.quote_of_the_day(lang='es')
# 'He sospechado alguna vez que la única cosa sin misterio es la felicidad, porque se justifica por sí sola.', 'Jorge Luis Borges'

>>> wikiquote.quotes('Hermann Hesse', lang='de')[0]
# 'Nun, aller höhere Humor fängt damit an, daß man die eigene Person nicht mehr ernst nimmt.'

>>> wikiquote.quote_of_the_day(lang='it')
# "Siamo angeli con un'ala sola. Possiamo volare solo restando abbracciati.", 'Luciano De Crescenzo'

>>> wikiquote.quote_of_the_day(lang='pl')
# 'Boże pomóż mi być takim człowiekiem, za jakiego uważa mnie mój pies.', 'Janusz Leon Wiśniewski'

>>> wikiquote.quotes('José Saramago', lang='pt')[0]
# 'Nem a juventude sabe o que pode, nem a velhice pode o que sabe.'

Specifying an invalid language will result in an UnsupportedLanguageException exception.

Tips

Use random.choice() to select a random quote from an article:

>>> import wikiquote, random

>>> random.choice(wikiquote.quotes('Linus Torvalds'))
# 'WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!'

Caveats

In some cases, wikiquote may fail to retrieve quotes from some articles, or the quote of the day (QOTD). This is due to Wikiquote.org's varying internal article layouts: some quotes may be contained in div elements, others in li, etc. depending on the article and the language.

Developing

uv is required to develop wikiquote.

First, make sure you have installed all necessary dependencies, including development dependencies:

$ uv sync

Then, check that all files are correctly formatted, and that the type hints are also correct:

$ uv run make lint
$ uv run make types

After that, check that all tests pass:

$ uv run make test

Some tests may be skipped in the QOTD is not available for some languages.

Finally, create a pull request stating your changes.

Changelog

See the CHANGELOG.md file.

The wikiquote package has been actively maintained for 10+ years 🎉

License

The wikiquote package is licensed under the MIT License.