
This is correct: https://docs.python.org/3.2/tutorial/introduction.html Or, strings can be surrounded in a pair of matching triple-quotes: """ or '''. End of lines do not need to be escaped when using triple-quotes, but they will be included in the string. So the following uses one escape to avoid an unwanted initial blank line. print("""\ Usage: thingy [OPTIONS] -h Display this usage message -H hostname Hostname to connect to """) This is NOT correct: https://docs.python.org/3.3/tutorial/introduction.html String literals can span multiple lines. One way is using triple-quotes: """...""" or '''...'''. End of lines are automatically included in the string, but it’s possible to prevent this by adding a \ at the end of the line. The following example: print("""\ Usage: thingy [OPTIONS] -h Display this usage message -H hostname Hostname to connect to """)