David Nelson or Dave Nelson may refer to:
- Dave Nelson (born 1944), American baseball player and sportscaster
- Dave Nelson (skateboarder) (born 1978), American skateboarder
- Dave Nelson, basketball player for the Canberra Cannons in the Australian National Basketball League
- Dave Nelson, character in NewsRadio sitcom, played by Dave Foley
- Dave Nelson, guitarist with Nektar
- David Aldrich Nelson (1932–2010), American jurist
- David D. Nelson, United States Ambassador to Uruguay, 2009–2011
- David M. Nelson (1920–1991), American football coach
- David Nelson (actor) (1936–2011), American actor, director and producer
- David Nelson (American football) (born 1986), American football wide receiver
- David Nelson (botanical collector) (died 1789), British botanical collector, crewmember of HMS Bounty
- David Nelson (footballer) (1918–1988), Scottish professional footballer
- David Nelson (electronic sports player) (born 1974), American electronic sports player
- David Nelson (musician) (born 1943), American guitarist and musician
- David Nelson (poet), original member of The Last Poets
- David Nelson (politician) (born 1941), American politician
- David Nelson (software developer) (born 1993), software developer
- David Nelson (Utah activist) (born 1962), American activist for the protection of equal rights for LGBT people
- David Nelson (VC) (1886–1918), Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross
- David Nelson, inventor of the current-feedback operational amplifier
- David Nelson, principal of Sir Wilfred Grenfell Elementary School
- David Nelson, U.S. playing name of David Stergakos (born 1956), Greek-American basketball player
- David Robert Nelson (born 1951), American physicist; professor of biophysics at Harvard University
- David Sutherland Nelson (1933–1998), American jurist
- Dr. David Nelson, character in the South Park episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson"
Famous quotes containing the words david and/or nelson:
“The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?”
—Jane Nelson (20th century)