Quotations

In a past persuasive essay I used a quote by a credible source that the audience likely had knowledge of to give my thesis credibility.  For my MLA formatted essay I used a quote by a former president. From my essay, "The legalization of Marijuana is not a new idea either legislation has been talked about since as far back as the seventies.  President Nixon is quoted as saying, 'state and federal law (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use' (WSJ.)"  Following my quotation I immediately cited where the quotation came from.  In another essay I wrote, in which the genre was informative.  I used a quote from a person the audience had no knowledge of, but who had much knowledge of the topic (fang activity in the US), and could provide interesting thought for the audience.  From my essay, "A former gang member said this while recounting his time while being a member of the bloods, 'even gang members imagine a future that doesn't include gangs' (Baltimore Sun.)"  It doesn't matter that the audience has never heard of the author of the quote because he is not giving a statistic or coming down hard on one side of any argument.  The purpose of the quote was to promote the audience to think.