If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republic Forum, March 1990

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, September 1989

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

What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle, to the American Samoans, whose capital Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo"

We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights.

El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard there. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans ... I have heard a single voice.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change.

I want to be Robin to Bush's Batman.

Getting [cruise missiles] more accurate so that we can have precise precision.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle referring to his legislative work dealing with cruise missiles

Verbosity tends to lead to unclear, inarticulate things.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

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

We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.

I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.

It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.

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.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

The other day [the President] said, "I know you've had some rough times and I want you to do something that will show the nation what faith I have in you, in your maturity, and sense of responsibility." [He paused, then said...] "Would you like a puppy?"

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle (LA Times, 05.21.89)

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get -- the future!

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle in Eastern Illinois (LA Times, 10.19.88)

I love California; I practically grew up in Phoenix.

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

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle, in a speech to the Christian Coalition

We are leaders of the world of the space program. We have been the leaders of the world of ... the space program and we're not going to continue where we're going to go, notwithstanding the Soviet Union's demise and collapse -- the former Soviet Union -- we now have independent republics which used to be called the Soviet Union. Space is the next frontier to be explored. And we're going to explore. Think of all the things we rely upon in space today: communications from ... Japan, detection of potential ballistic missile attacks. Ballistic missiles are still here. Other nations do have ballistic missiles. How do you think we were able to detect some of the Scud missiles and things like that? Space, reconnaissance, weather, communications -- you name it. We use space a lot today.

When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in LA, my answer has been direct and simple: who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle giving an intelligent, in-depth analysis of the LA riots (Herb Caen, SF Chronicle)

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

Speaking as a man, it's not a woman's issue. Us men are tired of losing our women.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle talking about breast cancer

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

I feel that this [1981] is my first year, that next year is an election year, that the third year is the midpoint, and that the fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record since the last two years I'll be a candidate again. Everything I do in those last two years will be posturing for the election. But right now I don't have to do that.

-- Senator Dan Quayle

This president is going to lead us out of this recovery.

-- Vice-President Dan Quayle at a campaign stop in California and then at CA State University, Fresno (The Quayle Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1992)

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

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

[The US victory in the Gulf War was a] stirring victory for the forces of aggression.

The best thing about rain forests is they never suffer from drought.

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

Our party has been accused of fooling the public by calling tax increases "revenue enhancement." Not so. No one was fooled.

People are not homeless if they're sleeping in the streets of their own hometowns.

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.