THE QUOTATION WITHIN A QUOTATION
552. When a quotation is contained within another, the included quotation should be enclosed by single quotation marks and the entire quotation enclosed by the usual marks. For example:
- He began by saying, "The last words of Ferrer, 'Long live the modern school' might serve as the text for this lecture."
- The speaker replied, "It was Karl Marx who said, 'Government always belongs to those who control the wealth of the country.'"
You will note in this sentence that the quotation within the quotation occurs at the end of the sentence so there are three apostrophes used after it, the single apostrophe to indicate the included quotation and the double apostrophe which follows the entire quotation.