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I don't think there is a rule, or not that I've ever found.
I think context is relevant. A character might look up and read a sign that says "blah blah blah". Since the context indicates "says", it seems appropriate to use quotes, but in other circumstances I'm inclined to use italics. Some books, particularly for younger readers, even put very short items always in their own paragraph - see next.
In situations where it is a note or similar, presented as separate paragraphs, then indentation on both sides is fairly common. Or sometimes centring for very short items. The indentation makes any other font change optional. In paper publications such are often presented in special font. You can do the same in ebooks but care is needed. In one of my novels I used a fixed width font indented on both sides to represent the email messages passed back and forth. Be careful though, a little can go a long way with this sort of stuff.
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