Top 160 Dan Quayle Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

— Dan Quayle

2. “We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.”

— Dan Quayle

3. “The future will be a better tomorrow.”

— Dan Quayle

4. “I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe.”

— Dan Quayle

5. “If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.”

— Dan Quayle

6. “For NASA, space is still a high priority.”

— Dan Quayle

7. “It would be bad for the economy if we have another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo.”

— Dan Quayle

8. “We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.”

— Dan Quayle

9. “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”

— Dan Quayle

10. “Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.”

— Dan Quayle

11. “Public Speaking is very easy.”

— Dan Quayle

12. “It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.”

— Dan Quayle

13. “We’ll let the sunshine in and shine on us, because today we’re happy and tomorrow we’ll be even happier.”

— Dan Quayle

14. “My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right.”

— Dan Quayle

15. “The intergenerational poverty that troubles us so much today is predominantly a poverty of values.”

— Dan Quayle

16. “I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.”

— Dan Quayle

17. “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.”

— Dan Quayle

18. “What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.”

— Dan Quayle

19. “I deserve respect for the things I did not do.”

— Dan Quayle

20. “The mind is a terrible thing!”

— Dan Quayle

21. “I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.”

— Dan Quayle

22. “The US condones violence in El Salvador.”

— Dan Quayle

23. “I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.”

— Dan Quayle

24. “I’m the Vice-President. They know it, and they know that I know it.”

— Dan Quayle

25. “You have a part-time job and that’s better to no job at all.”

— Dan Quayle

26. “What a terrible thing it is to lose one’s mind...”

— Dan Quayle

27. “We don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.”

— Dan Quayle

28. “Make no mistake about it: Operation Desert Storm truly was a victory of good over evil, of freedom over tyranny, of peace over war.”

— Dan Quayle

29. “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.”

— Dan Quayle

30. “People are not homeless if they’re sleeping in the streets of their own hometowns.”

— Dan Quayle

31. “The rapid rise of the People’s Republic of China as a military and economic power is challenging the status quo.”

— Dan Quayle

32. “Happy campers you have been, happy campers you are, and happy campers you will always be.”

— Dan Quayle

33. “It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”

— Dan Quayle

34. “It’s wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.”

— Dan Quayle

35. “Bobby Knight told me this: ‘There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.’ In other words a good offense wins.”

— Dan Quayle

36. “Developing relationships is a very important part of doing business, and I see more similarities than differences when I travel the world.”

— Dan Quayle

37. “The global importance of the Middle East is that it keeps the Far East and the Near East from encroaching on each other.”

— Dan Quayle

38. “If Al Gore invented the Internet, I invented spell check.”

— Dan Quayle

39. “I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.”

— Dan Quayle

40. “I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.”

— Dan Quayle

41. “Well, it looks as if the top part fell on the bottom part.”

— Dan Quayle

42. “We’re going to have the best-educated American people in the world.”

— Dan Quayle

43. “No, I had no problem communicating with Latin American heads of state – though now I do wish I had paid more attention to Latin when I was in high school.”

— Dan Quayle

44. “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.”

— Dan Quayle

45. “I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.”

— Dan Quayle

46. “Tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less.”

— Dan Quayle

47. “Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.”

— Dan Quayle

48. “Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.”

— Dan Quayle

49. “Bank failures are caused by depositors who don’t deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement.”

— Dan Quayle

50. “I was known as the chief grave robber of my state.”

— Dan Quayle