Welcome to the Bob Ross JSON API
A public API with Quotes from the legend himself, each request will return a random selection of ever growing list of quotes from his show.
How it works
The Bob Ross JSON API gives you the option to return a single random quote, multiple quotes up to a desired limit, or quotes matching a specific term. Everything is a simple GET request, so you can try it straight from your browser, curl, Postman or your app.
Every response is JSON with a quotes array (always an array, even for a single quote) and a meta object. CORS is enabled, so you can call it from any website.
GET requests
To get a single random quote from Bob, simply perform the following;
All quotes;
Multiple random quotes can be obtained by passing in a limit (N.B. this will be automatically capped at the number of quotes we currently hold at that time)
Search for a specific quote (not case sensitive, URL encoding supported)
A specific quote by its id;
Parameters can be combined, e.g. three random quotes about trees;
Response example (this one is live, refresh the page for another);
{
"quotes": [
{
"type": "quote",
"id": "3",
"text": "We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.",
"link": "https://api.bobross.dev/quotes/3"
}
],
"meta": {
"version": "2.0",
"links": {
"self": "https://api.bobross.dev/quotes/random",
"docs": "https://api.bobross.dev/"
},
"about": "Chris Barker - https://mrchrisbarker.com",
"contact": "@MrChrisBarker",
"acknowledgements": []
}
}When using /quotes, meta also includes total (all quotes), matched (after searching) and returned (after the limit).
Errors return an errors array instead of quotes, with a matching HTTP status code;
{
"errors": [
{
"status": 404,
"title": "Not Found",
"detail": "There is no quote with id \"999\"."
}
],
"meta": { ... }
}Feedback / Contributions / Acknowledgements
Any and all feedback is welcome, including contributions to Quotes (I'll even give you a shout out on my X account 😝).
All acknowledgements for this project can be found in the JSON response.
Author
Hi, I'm Chris, Mobile Apps Chapter Lead at JLR in Manchester. I've been writing software for twenty-odd years, more than ten of them in mobile (mainly iOS).
I co-host NSManchester, the city's iOS meetup, and occasionally write books about Swift, most recently the Swift Cookbook (3rd edition) for Packt. You can find more at mrchrisbarker.com.
Feel free to reach out and connect - even if it's just for a virtual coffee - you can catch me on X, LinkedIn or GitHub - Cheers
Support
The Bob Ross JSON API is free and I plan to keep it that way, however if you like this service and would like to buy me a coffee, please feel free to do so via the below link (it would be much appreciated)!
This is an unofficial fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Bob Ross Inc. or the Bob Ross family. Bob Ross's name and likeness are trademarks of Bob Ross Inc. Quotes are reproduced for fun and remain the property of their respective owners.