BLOCKQUOTE As An Indent
layout hacks 1995 still worksQuoting nothing, three deep, because it was the only way to move text to the right.
In 2026: It still works and it is still wrong. Nesting DL and DD for the same reason was equally common. Both put the wrong thing in the document outline, which matters to screen readers and to search engines.
Where it came from: Universal practice from about 1995. Called out as an abuse in the HTML 3.2 specification itself. MDN ↗
<!-- Indent one step -->
<blockquote>Not a quotation.</blockquote>
<!-- Indent three steps -->
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>
Still not a quotation. Just further right.
</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<!-- The other way people did it -->
<dl><dd><dl><dd>Also just an indent.</dd></dl></dd></dl>
<!-- And the third way -->
<p> Indented with non-breaking spaces.</p>
<!-- The 2026 version -->
<p style="margin-left: 4em">A margin.</p>