Quotation marks [“ ” or
”] are used to include a copied passage. If the copied passage itself contains a quotation, the latter is denoted by single marks [‘ ’ or
’]; as, “My father said in banter, ‘James, the notes are not correct.’ The farmer dryly answered, ‘I dinna ken what they may be noo; but they were a’ richt afore ye had your fingers in amang ’em.’”
In some publications a little labor is saved by using single marks for the principal quotations, and double if there happen to be inserted ones; as in a recent novel by Mrs. Humphrey Ward:
‘To plunge into the Christian period without having first cleared the mind as to what is meant in history and literature by “the critical method” which in history may be defined,’ etc.
The same neat style is used in Max Müller’s Translation of Kant:
What Kant felt in his heart of hearts we know from some remarks found after his death among his papers. ‘It is {p120} dishonorable,’ he writes, ‘to retract or deny one’s real convictions, but silence in a case like my own, is the duty of a subject; and though all we say must be true, it is not our duty to declare publicly all that is true.’—Preface.
Brackets are used to inclose words omitted by a writer or copyist; as, “Were you [on the] deck of the steamer at the [time] of the collision?” (In the Holy Scriptures, supplied words are put in italics: “Because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law.”) Explanations inserted in text are usually inclosed in brackets; as in the following instance, from “The Life of Dr. Goldsmith”: “You see, my dear Dan, how long I have been talking about myself. [Some mention of private family affairs is here omitted.] My dear sir, these things give me real uneasiness,” etc.