"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." -- Quayle, 8/11/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"I want to be Robin to Bush's Batman."
"We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have prevailed without them in 'Red Storm Rising'."
"Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us."
"Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement."
"Are they taking DDT?" -- Quayle asking doctors at a Manhattan AIDS clinic about their treatments of choice, 4/30/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, and NY Post early May 92)
"The best thing about rain forests is they never suffer from drought."
"Let me tell you something. As we were walking around in the store, Marilyn and I were just really impressed by all the novelties and the different types of little things that you could get for Christmas. And all the people that would help you, they were dressed up in things that said, "I believe in Santa Claus." And the only thing that I could think is that I believe in George Bush."
"I was known as the chief grave robber of my state."
"My position is that I understand from a medical situation, immediately after a rape is reported, that a woman normally, in fact, can go to the hospital and have a D and C. At that time... that is before the forming of a life. That is not anything to do with abortion." ---- Senator Dan Quayle, explaining that Dilatation and Curettage, a form of abortion which occurs after fertilization, is not really abortion
"You're a very strong woman... Though this would be a traumatic experience that you would never forget, I think that you would be very successful in life. " ( telling an 11-year-old girl why he would want her to have the baby if she were raped by her father)
"It was just a job. It wasn't any special interest in consumer affairs. I needed a paycheck and the Attorney General said that I would be best to go down there, because he knew I was anti-consumer." (talking about his job as Chief investigator, consumer protection division of the Indiana Attorney General's office from 1970-1971)
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child." US News and World Report (10/10/88)
"Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts." (addressing the 20th anniversary celebration of the moon landing, 7/20/89, reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"You always learn something by reading the classics.
Particularly The Prince. I go through and look at this from this
intellectual point of view. Machiavelli had these three classes
of mind. The first class was the person that was creative enough
to be leader and be able to lead a great nation without much
help. The second class of mind was one that wasn't creative but
could take ideas, put people around him, and be able to lead
nations forward. And the third class of people didn't really know
much of anything. And they were the worst kind of leaders,
because not only were they not creative, but they didn't know
what was right or wrong, and they just sort of went by whatever
they felt like.
I've tried to figure out where I am. I know I'm not the first
because I don't think I have the creativeness that Machiavelli
talks about. If I go back and reread it I might figure it out
exactly where I put myself. I'm somewhere between two and
one." (giving his opinion of the book `The Prince', 9/28/88,
reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Our party has been accused of fooling the public by calling tax increases 'revenue enhancement.' Not so. No one was fooled."
"Votes are like trees, if you are trying to build a forest. If you have more trees than you have forests, then at that point the pollsters will probably say you will win."
"We'll let the sunshine come in and shine on us, because today we're happy and tomorrow we'll be even happier." (addressing students at a high school in Miami with the highest dropout rate of the city)
"Bobby Knight told me this: 'There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.' In other words a good offense wins." (comparing the offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact with the defensive system of NATO, 9/8/88, reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights."
"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change." (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure." (to the Phoenix Republican Forum, 3/23/90, reported in Esquire, 8/92; also reported by Reuters, 5/2/90)
"I'm not going to focus on what I have done in the past, what I stand for, what I articulate to the American people. The American people will judge me on what I am saying and what I have done in the last 12 years in the Congress." -- Vice President Dan Quayle
"May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world."-- The Quayle's 1989 Christmas card
"I can identify with steelworkers. I can identify with workers that have had a difficult time." -- Quayle addressing workers at an Ohio steel plant,1988
"[I will never have] another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo." -- Quayle, during the Benson debate
"We shouldn't have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say." ---- Vice-President Dan Quayle
"Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm my own handler. Any questions? Ask me ... There's not going to be any more handler stories because I'm the handler ... I'm Doctor Spin."-- Quayle responding to press reports his aides having to, in effect, "potty train" him
"I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in this country." -- Quayle
"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system." -- Quayle, on the concept of a manned mission to Mars
"Perestroika is nothing more than refined Stalinism." ---- Senator Dan Quayle
"Let me say it one more time. It is ill-rel-e-vant. ... [Why?] Because. Because I say it isn't." ---- Senator Dan Quayle, explaining why questions about his parents' ties to the John Birch Society aren't relevant
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things." -- Quayle
"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."--Quayle
"Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists." -- Quayle, regarding David Duke's candidacy
"Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because the real question for 1988 is whether we're going to go forward to tomorrow or past to the -- to the back!" -- Quayle, 8/17/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is IN the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."-Quayle, in Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is." (winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund, 5/9/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, and the NY Times, 12/9/92. This gem has been added to Bartlett's `Familiar Quotations'.)
"You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be." (to the American Samoans, whose capital Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo")
Quayle stumbled in response to a question about his opinion of the Holocaust. He said it was "an obscene period in our nation's history." Then, trying to clarify his remark, Quayle said he meant "this century's history" and added a confusing comment. "We all lived in this century, I didn't live in this century," he said. (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)