In Lisp (Clojure, Emacs Lisp), what is the difference between list and quote?

Question

From reading introductory material on Lisp, I now consider the following to be identical:

(list 1 2 3)

\'(1 2 3)

However, judging from pro

Answer 1

The primary difference is that quote prevents evaluation of the elements, whereas list does not:

user=> '(1 2 (+ 1 2))
(1 2 (+ 1 2))
user=> (list 1 2 (+ 1 2))
(1 2 3)

For this reason (among others), it is idiomatic clojure to use a vector when describing a literal collection:

user=> [1 2 (+ 1 2)]
[1 2 3]