Using Quotations in an Essay

1. Epigraph: a quote before the essay https://style.mla.org/styling-epigraphs/

                             "You must allow me to tell you 
            how ardently I admire and love you."
                            --Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

2. Catchy opening line: a quote used as a lead or integrated into a lead
                     
3. Signal phrase:  Darcy says, "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you" (162).

4. Sentence finisher:  Darcy tells Elizabeth that he loves her "ardently" (162).

5. Embedded or integrated word or phrase:  Darcy's passionate appeal "must" (162) be heard. 

6. Edited quotation: Darcy reveals to Elizabeth how "ardently [he] ... love[s] [her]" (162). 

7. Paraphrase:  Darcy confesses his love to Elizabeth in a passionate address (162).

8. Block quote (for quotes greater than or equal to 4 lines) ... NOTE: the text below would ALL be DOUBLE-SPACED in an MLA-formatted essay ... also I couldn't figure out how to indent the whole quote, so I tried indenting each line of the quote -- it looks ok on my laptop, sorry if it looks strange on another device).  Click here for more info on block quotes.

           Although he addresses her in a civil, polite manner, Darcy's proposal is doomed from the start: 

          He spoke well, but there were feelings 
          besides those of the heart to be detailed, 
          and he was not more eloquent on the subject 
          of tenderness than of pride. His sense of 
          her inferiority--of its being a 
          degradation--of the family obstacles which 
          judgment had always opposed to inclination 
          were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due 
          to the consequence he was wounding, but was 
          very unlikely to recommend his suit. (162-163)

Darcy's miscalculation is in thinking that the "eloquence" and "warmth" of his address would excuse the insulting nature of his comments about Lizzy's family.  Realistically, these insults would have turned Lizzy away even if she did not already blame him for ruining the lives of Jane, Wickham, and, to a lesser extent, Bingley.

Examples and further MLA Info:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html