You always learn something by reading the classics.

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.
-- Senator Dan Quayle gives his opinion of the book
-- "The Prince," 9/28/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)