Here are a few,
It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/15/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)
This election is about who's going to be the next President of the United States!
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/2/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is `to be prepared'.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 12/6/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican Forum, 3/23/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92) Also reported by Reuters, 5/2/90
Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because in 1988 the question is whether we're going forward to tomorrow or whether we're going to go past to the -- to the back!
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 8/17/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund, 5/9/89 This gem has been added to Bartlett's `Familiar Quotations'. (reported in Esquire, 8/92) (reported in the NY Times, 12/9/92)
Take a breath, Al... Inhale.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle politely cutting off Senator Al Gore during the VP Debate in Atlanta, 10/13/92. Gov. Zell Miller of Georgia said that Dan Quayle reminded him of one of his grandkids when they've had too much sugar.
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, US News and World Report (10/10/88)
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.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing the 20th anniversary celebration of the moon landing, 7/20/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is 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.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
The loss of life will be irreplaceable.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after the San Francisco earthquake, 10/19/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Bobby Knight told me this: ``There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.' In other words a good offense wins.
-- Senator Dan Quayle, in a speech to the City Club of Chicago, comparing the offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact with the defensive system of NATO, 9/8/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
I do -- I do -- I do -- I do -- what any normal person would do at that age. You call home. You call home to mother and father and say, ``I'd like to get into the National Guard.'
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 8/19/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
There was no influence used. I didn't have to use any influence because before I applied, there were openings, when I applied, there were openings, and after I applied, there were openings. Those are the facts. And if you're interested in the facts, there they are.
-- Senator Dan Quayle defending the way he got into the National Guard (from `The Unofficial Dan Quayle Video').
I did not know in 1969 that I would be in this room today, I'll confess.
-- Senator Dan Quayle responding to questions in 1988 about allegations that he used family connections to get into the Indiana National Guard (reported in the Washington Post, 8/26/88).
When you get into conflict, and regional conflicts, I mean, you have to have certain goals, and a goal cannot be really a no-win situation.
-- Senator Dan Quayle attempting to explain his military service during the Vietnam war (reported in the Washington Post, 9/6/88).
Obviously, if you join the National Guard, you have less of a chance of going to Vietnam. I mean it goes without saying.
-- Senator Dan Quayle discussing his draft record on NBC's `Meet the Press', 9/20/92. (reported in the Houston Chronicle 9/21/92)
I got into the Guard fairly. There were no rules broken, to my knowledge... I, like many, many other Americans, had particular problems about the way the war was being fought. But yes, I supported my president and I supported the goal of fighting communism in Vietnam.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle (reported in High Times, 11/92)
It would be a serious mistake to replace a seasoned statesman with a temperamental tycoon who has no respect for the constitution.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle giving his opinion about Ross Perot's presidential campaign (June 1992)
This president is going to lead us out of this recovery. It will happen.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle at a campaign stop at CA State University, Fresno, 1/17/92 (The Quayle Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1992)
We have to do more than just elect a new president if we truly want to change this country.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
Absolutely. I certainly hope I am.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle on whether he is still on the Republican ticket (Newsweek, August 10, 1992)
We have had a number of discussions and, believe me, if I thought I was hurting the ticket, I'd be gone.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle on Larry King Live when asked if he'd offered to remove himself from the ticket (CNN, July 22, 1992)
[I will describe] where I come from and what kind of a house I lived in when I was a kid, how many public schools that I went to -- five elementary, two high schools -- product of a public school system, two jobs in college, went to night school, worked my way through law school.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle telling an interviewer how he will use his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention to reintroduce himself to the public, and to provide details of his hard-working background. (reported in the NY Times 8/15/92)
When you start talking about sleaze, I think some in the media ought to look in the mirror. Now what's the motivation of this? I can't think of any other motivating factor other than you want to hurt the President and help Bill Clinton.
There's good journalism and there's bad journalism. And I want to say something to you good journalists. You are being overwhelmed by the bad journalism and the bad journalists of America.
Good journalism is taking a rumor, taking gossip and going out and investigating it and finding out if it's true, and if there's any credibility at all. And when you find something like this that was investigated and was totally false, you don't print it.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle at a news conference in Huntington Beach, CA, defending George Bush against charges of marital infidelity. (reported in the NY Times 8/13/92)
For more than a month the media have been telling us that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are `moderates'. Well, if they're moderates, I'm a world champion speller.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle in his acceptance speech during the 1992 Republican National Convention, 8/20/92.
We will never give Bill Clinton the opportunity to be the President of the United States.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle (9/19/92)
If Ross Perot runs, that's good for us. If he doesn't run, it's good for us.
[A reporter then asked him what he meant by that]
That's for you to figure out.
-- Vice-President Dan Quayle answering a reporter's question on what the effect might be if Perot re-entered the race. He was campaigning in Rockford, Ill., 9/29/92. The Vice-President later clarified the remark, saying that Perot will raise issues about the economy, and this is one of the President's strengths. (reported in the NY Times, 9/30/92)
He grew up in Washington, D.C., and he's the son of a wealthy U.S. Senator... He went to the most expensive private schools in Washington, D.C., and I'm the product of the public schools... I'm at a big disadvantage, but we'll do all right.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle while in Detroit, 9/30/92 A spokesman later said that he was joking. (reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer 10/1/92)
Our trick, Rush -- not a trick, our challenge -- our challenge is to make the American people comfortable with the leadership George Bush will offer in the next four years.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, on the Rush Limbaugh show. (Reported in the NY Times, 7/8/92 - from the Quayle Quarterly, Summer/Fall 1992)
If you elect Bill Clinton and Al Gore, that would be a disaster for agriculture. What Bill Clinton says he'll do, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do is to give a lot of balance to the interest here in California. What we would have is an environmental summit, and guess who's going to be the head of that enironmental summit? It's not going to be the Governor of Arkansas. He's going to put Senator Al Gore in charge of the environmental summit and his book will be the agenda for that environmental summit.
I hope everyone reads that book. We wanted to take that book to our debate, but for some reason Al Gore didn't want us to have the book in the debate because we wanted to make sure everyone knew what was in that book. Because that's the agenda for Bill Clinton. That's the agenda of the Clinton-Gore administration. Here's what he says about farmers. Here's what he says about agriculture in that book. He says that farmers strip-mine the land. He says that agriculture is in fact bulldozing the Garden of Eden. Well I tell you what, if you elect Bill Clinton and Al Gore you can say goodbye to water, goodbye to food, and goodbye to your jobs. But come November the 3rd, the American people are going to say good-bye to Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle in a speech to farmers outside Fresno, California on 10/7/92 (reported in the NY Times 10/8/92)
Bill Clinton's tax-and-spend policies will create a recession in America.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle in New Jersey, 10/19/92. He did not go on to distinguish between the predicted Clinton recession and the current Bush recession. (reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/20/92)
Remember the last time we had a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress? Remember the 21 percent interest rates? Remember the inflation of 13 percent? Remember the grain embargo? Remember the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan?
-- Vice President Dan Quayle in New Jersey to a crowd of teenagers, 10/19/92. The answer to each question was probably `no'. During the Carter administration, these teenagers were probably more interested in diapers and baby formula than in economics and foreign policy. (reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/20/92)
We have been pushing the idea George Bush is going to make matters much, much worse by holding the line on taxes, a balanced budget amendment...
-- Vice President Dan Quayle while on `CBS This Morning', 10/27/92 (reported by the Chicago Tribune and by the Star-Ledger on 10/28/92)
The President scores much better than Bill Clinton.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, comparing Bush's record of marital infidelity to Clinton's during a televised interview with David Frost, 10/92.
[Republican supporter: You did great, Dan, great. There's just one thing. This abortion thing. You've got to realize that the Democratic position --]
Is extreme? (nodding in anticipation)
[No, is supported by 72 percent of the people in this country. You've got to drop it, Dan.]
-- Vice President Dan Quayle while standing on the stage after the VP debate taking the congratulations of well-wishing Republicans, 10/13/92. Quayle then nodded politely and moved on. (reported in the NY Times 10/14/92)
He is going to be the president of the United States for the next 4 years. He deserves our congratulations. He ran a good campaign. He ran a tough campaign. If he runs the country as well as he ran his campaign, we'll be all right.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle in his concession speech on 11/3/92 in Huntington, Indiana.
Let us get through this week. Let us get through the debate or debates. Let us see George Bush re-elected this November. And then we'll talk about 1994.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle when asked by Bernard Shaw if Bush/Quayle victory in 1992 would make him the heir apparent in 1996, 8/17/92, on CNN. (A NY Times article started: ``No Comment Yet On Strategy for '94. But will it be a good year for potatoes?' It then went on to speculate that Kemp, Baker, Bennett and Buchanan won't be running in '94)
I will post more if you want.
Dave (A.K.A. Homebrew)
