TheySaidSo Famous Quotes API

We have a huge collection of quotes in our database. And our best Quotes API gives easy way to access the data. Note if you are using our public API / quotes from our website an attribution link back to theysaidso.com is required. If you don't want to display attribution please sign up for the private API. Here is the code you can cut and paste to provide attribution.

<span style="z-index:50;font-size:0.9em;"><img src="https://theysaidso.com/branding/theysaidso.png" height="20" width="20" alt="theysaidso.com"/><a href="https://theysaidso.com" title="Powered by quotes from theysaidso.com" style="color: #9fcc25; margin-left: 4px; vertical-align: middle;">theysaidso.com</a></span>
		  

Which will translate to something like this in your webpage. Nothing too big. Just a small token of appreciation from you for our service.

theysaidso.com

This page is only for high level reference only. For full documentation of the API and to test the API end points from your browser visit http://quotes.rest.

API End Points

The end point for connecting, if you subscribe directly from us use this endpoint.

 http://quotes.rest/ 

Authentication

The API's marked as public below can be accessed without any authentication.

Here is an example of requesting an inspiring quote of the day using curl.

curl -v  -i -X GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json?category=inspire  

For the API's that are private currently we support API Key based authentication. Please set a request header 'X-TheySaidSo-Api-Secret' with value of your API key. Alternatively you can also pass api_key= as a request parameter, though we strongly discourage this mode of passing the key.

Here is an example of requesting for a random quote using curl.

curl -v  -i -X GET -H 'X-TheySaidSo-Api-Secret: <your_api_key>'  http://quotes.rest/quote/random.json  

Here is an example of requesting for a random quote using passing api_key as a parameter.

http://quotes.rest/quote/random.json?api_key=<your_api_key>

Formats

Want it in JSON format? Just append .json to the query like below. Alternatively you send a http accept header indicating you expect json response. Mashape by default does this so if you are using Mashape the following is not applicable.

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json

Just append .xml to the query to get the result in XML format.

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod.xml

Want it in javascript friendly format. We support JSONP format as well. Append .js to your request.

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod.js

Rate Limit

To maintain our service level we rate limit (10 API calls per hour) our public API usage. If you sign up and use the private api key or any of the supported authentication schemes this limit is increased to according to the service level of your plan.

Quote of the day public ratelimited

To get the quote of the day use the following api call.

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json

Here is an example of using this from your browser. Click on the url below to test.

Here is an example using curl.

curl -v  -i -X GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json

Here is an example using curl, if you are a subscriber and have an API key.

curl -v  -i -X GET  -H 'X-Theysaidso-Api-Secret: <api_key>' http://quotes.rest/qod.json

QOD Categories public ratelimited

We have more than 15 categories (5 categories published now. 10 categories are being added) for our Quote of the Day service. To get the all the categories in the QOD system, use the following API.

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod/categories.json

Here is an example using curl.

curl -v  -i -X GET http://quotes.rest/qod/categories.json

QOD for a specific category public ratelimited

Here is example of requesting a Management Quote of the day!

 GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json?category=management 

Here is an example using curl.

curl -v  -i -X GET http://quotes.rest/qod.json?category=management

Random Quote private ratelimited

Want a random quote from our system? Call the following API.

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/random.json

Quote with length restrictions private ratelimited

Want a quote that fits your display profile? You can use any of the following combination to pick the best quote size.

The following returns a quote with at least 100 char length.

 GET  http://quotes.rest/quote/search.json?minlength=100 

The following returns a quote with maximum of 100 char length i.e. 0-100 char length quote.

 GET  http://quotes.rest/quote/search.json?maxlength=100 

The following returns a quote with a length between 100 chars to 300 chars.

 GET  http://quotes.rest/quote/search.json?minlength=100&maxlength=300 

Categories private ratelimited

We categorize the quotes with tags and we have lot of categories of quotes in our system. To browse the categories in the system, use the following api. Adjust the start parameter to browse.

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/categories.json?start=300 

If you need a random quote from any of the above 500+ categories, just specify the category in you query.

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/search.json?category=<category>

Author private ratelimited

Our quotes database has quotes from more than 100,000 authors. No where else you have this much variety. You can browse the author names by adjusting the start parameter.

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/authors.json?start=1000 

If you want a random quote by an author, here is how you get it.

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/search.json?author=<author> 

Combination Example

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/search?minlength=100&category=<category>&author=<author> 

Adding Quotes private ratelimited

You can also programmatically add quotes to our system using our API. Use REST PUT to add a new quote. This will be your private quote in the system.

 PUT http://quotes.rest/quote.json?quote=<quote>&author=<author>&tags=<tags>

Random Quote Image private ratelimited

We have beautiful curated quotes as images. You can access them easily using our API and show them in your websites or Applications. To get a random quote image use the following:

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/image/search.json

Random Quote Image from a category private ratelimited

To get a random quote image from a particular category use the following:

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/image/search.json?category=<category>

Random Quote Image from an Author private ratelimited

To get a random quote image from a particular author use the following:

 GET http://quotes.rest/quote/image/search.json?author=<author>

Subscribe

The private API methods are accessible only through subscription. Drop us a note (Choose About > Contact) if you have any questions.

If you don't want to subscribe directly from us, you can also get access through Mashape. Click the button below to visit our API at Mashape and subscribe from Mashape.