<p>After making it through the major parts of an introductory Lisp book, I still couldn't understand what the special operator <code>(quote)</code> (or equivalent <code>'</code>) function does, yet this has been all over Lisp code that I've seen.  </p>

<p>What does it do?</p>

It says "don't evaluate me".  For example, if you wanted to use a list as data, and not as code, you'd put a quote in front of it.  For example,
```
(print '(+ 3 4))
```
prints "(+ 3 4)", whereas
```
(print (+ 3 4))
```
prints "7"