diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
index 20bdd310ac4..fe14d581dc3 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakeevaluator.cpp
@@ -311,7 +311,8 @@ ProStringList QMakeEvaluator::split_value_list(const QString &vals, const ProFil
         switch (unicode) {
         case '"':
         case '\'':
-            quote = unicode;
+            if (!quote)
+                quote = unicode;
             hadWord = true;
             break;
         case ' ':