Joe Biden Quotes

Given a fair shot, given a fair chance, Americans have never, ever, ever, ever let their country down. Never. Never. Ordinary people like us. Who do extraordinary things.

But I was amazed at how organized the Palestinian election authority was, how competent they were in setting up their polling places and the poll workers they had.

You should be attacking the carbon emissions, period, and whether it's cap-and-trade or carbon tax or whatever, that's the realm in which we should be playing.

Abe Foxman has been a friend and advisor of mine for a long time.

Presumptuous for me to say, but at least - at a minimum - I've been able to influence the direction of the Democratic Party on foreign policy. And I've been relatively - presumptuous to say - relatively successful legislatively in the Senate, being able to win a lot of Republican friends, and being able to cross the aisle.

Partitioning Iraq is inevitable, as shown by history.

Except for the title 'father,' there is no title, including 'vice president,' that I am more proud to wear than that of United States senator.

Should we have border security there? Yes. But the idea of the United States erecting a wall for the world to see makes a lie of everything we say about ourselves. It's a little bit like why the President [Barack Obama] and I feel so strongly about closing Guantanamo. It is inconsistent with who we are.

Israel has no better friend than Joe Biden

Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild it. It's you. Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you.

When my first semester grades came out, my mom and dad told me I wouldn't be playing football.

Everyone working 40 hrs a week should have a shot at a decent life.

We're going to be OK because of the American people. They have more grit, determination and courage than you can imagine.

I kept trying to tell people that just because I was young didn't mean I could speak for all young people.

Anybody who pretends that how you read the 10th and 11th Amendment doesn't have a fundamental impact on the things we care about is kidding themselves. They're either uninformed or they're kidding themselves.

We have to make sure that not only we [politicians] actually focus on, but the entire nation knows we're focusing on, growth and competition within the United States of America and compete internationally. I don't know anywhere where it's written that we have to be number two.

Folks, you're the reason that the automobile industry is back. Whether it was the wage freezes, the plant closures, folks, you sacrificed to keep your companies open. Because of your productivity, the combined auto companies have committed to invest another $23 billion in expansion in America.

Remember, no one decides who they're going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.

I was first in my family to go to college.

The United States, to state the obvious, is greatly concerned by the startling number of unaccompanied minors that - children and teenagers who are making a very perilous journey through Central America to reach the United States.

The truth is, my dad was a great driver. I mean, he could handle an automobile. He loved speed. He used to joke that his one regret was he didn't join the volunteer fire service so he could drive the ambulance.

My recollection is - and I'd have to confirm this - but I don't recall paying any money to go to law school.

So I try to be mindful at all times, of what a difference a small human gesture can make to people in need. What does it really cost to take a moment to look someone in the eye, to give him a hug, to let her know, I get it. You're not alone?

Look, guys, no matter what a girl does, no matter how she's dressed, no matter how much she's had to drink, it's never, never, never, never, never OK to touch her without her consent. This doesn't make you a man. It makes you a coward.

The American people have not become heartless.

I think it is very possible he [Donald Trump] could be nominated and depending on how this all plays out, I would take him seriously in terms of being able to win because he's appealing to a very, very - he's appealing to fear.

I was in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and movie houses in the '60s.

Nothing we're going to do is going to fundamentally alter or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting ...

Donald Trump is appealing to, that whole expression, everybody who asked me, why is Trump able to win in those 16 people? There's a whole expression. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I'm not very good at prognosticating but I would not be surprised if he's the nominee.

America's commitment to collective defense under Article 5 of NATO is a sacred obligation in our view - a sacred obligation not just for now, but for all time.

Wealthy people understand we're one America, and we do best when we're all together.

There is no question that I would be the better president. But as for the campaign, are Americans ready for a general election in which both major party candidates are ADD? Quite frankly, it could provide an opening for a third party candidate, maybe someone backed by the evil Koch brothers.

When you go to your local police officer, your police chief in the town you live in, big or small, he will tell you the vast majority of the weapons recovered at a crime scene are either stolen weapons, and/or they have been 'lost' or stolen.

I believe all Americans are born with certain inalienable rights. As a child of God, I believe my rights are not derived from the constitution. My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not denied by any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our creator, and they represent the essence of human dignity ...

Vote for war allowed war only after all else failed.

There's no reason the nation of Africa cannot and should not join the ranks of the world's most prosperous nations in the near term, in the decades ahead. There is simply no reason.

This [Judge Samuel Alito] may be one of the most significant or consequential nominations that the Senate will vote on since I've been here in the last three decades.

One of the things I've never been accused of is not caring about people.

In presidential campaign I released a 65-page file from the Syracuse University College of Law that showed poor grades, back in college, also. If I were plagiarizing consistently, my grades would have been better.

'Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.' Guess what? Yes, we do in one regard: We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super-wealthy. That's not a tax raise. That's called fairness where I come from.

I travel a lot on foreign policy, as you know. I'm in Europe a lot. I travelled over a million miles as vice president. They didn't do stimulus. Look where they are. Come on. I mean, this is like, I just get so frustrated. Like come on.

I guess every single word I've ever said is going to be dissected now.

It's presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.

Why do people like America? They say, well, you have the largest military in the world. Because you have more people, et cetera. They like America for what we stand for. And one of the things, and I feel proud to be, what this president's for, the last seven years, is we have once again aligned our basic fundamental beliefs and principles with our conduct. And it matters. It matters in terms of our security. It matters in terms of our ability to influence the world. It matters in our ability to succeed.

Senator John Stennis:
The civil rights movement did more to free the white man that the black man ... It freed my soul.

Look, freedom is an overwhelming American notion. The idea that we want to see the world, the peoples of the world free is something that all of us subscribe to.

The effects of climate change are real and must be acted on.

You should not run for president because tactically you can win. The questions you have to ask are why you're running for president and what will you do when you are president. You shouldn't run until you know the answers to those questions.

I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.

First of all, there are Persians and Arabs. The fact they share a religion, a Shiite religion, does not mean that they're close. It doesn't work that way. There is a relationship because there is a long border. There is going to be trade between them. They should have a relationship. They want to make sure that - though, that there is no undue influence coming from Iran or any other country in the region.

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, 'Joey, the guy in Olyphant's out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law's out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression.'

Over the objections, where they sound like squealing pigs, over the objections of Romney and all his allies, we passed some of the toughest Wall Street regulations in history, turning Wall Street back into the allocator of capital it always has been and no longer a casino. And they want to repeal it.

I believe the American people have a genuine and justifiable fear of government intrusion in what they instinctively know is going to be an ever more intrusive world.

The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.

You get a lawyer whether you're in a military tribunal or whether you're in a federal court, number one. The attorney general decided that the court with the biggest - with the greatest venue, with the best jurisdiction was the New York court. That was the right decision to make.

I ran for the Senate six times. And one of the things I know about Senate races off years and on races, and on years, the same as governor's races, is it's all local. It all gets down to what the specific issues in that - in that district or that state is.

President Putin continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past and he has signed recently, we, the United States, and Europe as a whole, have to stand with Ukraine at this moment. Ukraine needs our financial assistance and support as it pursues reforms and even in the face, in the face of this military onslaught.

I exaggerate when I'm angry, but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.

I used to say to my late wife, 'I have great faith in the American people.'

We have a Bill of Rights, we have trial by jury. We have a notion that you are - you're innocent until you're proven guilty. We have all these things.

Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.

I'd rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep.

People everywhere in the world are hungry for economic opportunity. And it's about a lot more than being able to make money.

(On Barack Obama) I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.

Anyone who's traveled with me to Afghanistan knows why I love this book: 'War,' by Sebastian Junger.

And don't any of you, by the way, any of you guys vote Republican. I'm not supposed to say, this isn't political. ... don't come to me if you do! You're on your own, Jack!

Wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor people, I honest to God believe that.

There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and - I'm going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

It should be heart-breaking to every American that we have a frontrunner in the presidential race that suggests there will be a religious test for anybody who wishes to come to our shores.

Well, I'm telling them two things. One is that, look, this is going to be something when the American people realize - once it's passed - that, A, it does take care of preexisting conditions; B, you're insurance rates aren't going to skyrocket; C, the insurance companies aren't going to be running the show like they were before; D, you're going to be in a position where you can keep your insurance that you have. That once the American public realizes that, you're going to get a reward for this. They're going to be rewarded.

It's time to reach deep into the soul of this country and once again give everyone - and I mean everyone - the opportunity to achieve the impossible.

I also acknowledge that prejudice runs very deep in our society. And, in the real world, discrimination rears its ugly head in the shadows, where it's very difficult to root it out.

Raising minimum wage doesn't just benefit the workers behind me, it creates a proven ripple effect that increases wages all the way up the scale ... Let's get the facts straight, only 20 percent of people making the minimum wage are teenagers. The rest are hardworking adults, many of them with families, and I mean hardworking.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.

I have no doubt that Russia will and should remain a major source of energy supplies for Europe and the world.

What I was saying is that Israel cannot count on the United States.

The Constitution provides for one democratic moment, Judge, before a lifetime of judicial independence, when the people of the United States are entitled to know as much as we can about the person that we're about to entrust with safeguarding our future and the future of our kids.

You turn on the television, it's like, "Woah is me! God almighty, we're awful." We are so down and out we are - name me a country in the world, name me one leader anywhere in the world who wouldn't trade places in a heartbeat. We by far, we're going to own the 21st century.

He told Beau to go home and live like he had a future. 'Run for governor. Have a purpose.' Almost every day after that, I found myself acting on that advice - have a purpose. No matter what came at me, I held fast to my own sense of purpose.

I once said, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." When Bobby Jindal entered the Republican campaign, my comment should have been covered again, more prominently. I mean, Jindal is not Native American, he's a real Indian.

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit. The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress.

Make sure of two things: Be careful
microphones are always hot, and understand that in Washington, DC, a gaffe is when you tell the truth. So, be careful.

Al Gore invented the Internet.

I believe the measure of a man isn't just the road he's traveled; it's the choices he's made along the way.

I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science.

Social Security's not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you've got to put all of it on the table.

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

I should start with an apology to Rudy Giuliani. I said every sentence Rudy utters has a noun, a verb, and 9/11 in it. I was wrong. He called me to tell me after Pat Robertson's endorsement, there's an Amen in every sentence he says too.

The American public's a lot more sophisticated than we all give them credit for. And on complicated issues, I'm going to give them straight answers. And if it takes more than three minutes, I'm going to do it.

We are working to deploy a powerful new radar network with American early warning systems,

We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values.

The only thing I know is I ain't changing my brand. I know what I believe. I'm confident in what I know. And I'm gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don't like it, I understand.

Well, we're [USA] not looking for an ally; what we're looking for is a stable, democratic government that is not beholden to anyone in the region and is able to be secure within its own borders and have its own policy.

Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they're proposing. Romney wants to let the - he said in the first 100 days he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules - unchain Wall Street. They're gonna put y'all back in chains.

I have never touched Hillary [Clinton] inappropriately.

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

Most Americans think there's already universal background checks. They don't understand why there wouldn't be a background check to purchase a weapon.

The senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it's a pretty good detour.
Hubert Humphrey, as quoted by Biden, p. 134

When violence against women is no longer societally accepted, no longer kept secret; when everyone understands that even one case is too many. That's when it will change.

I worked at an all-black swimming pool in the east side of Wilmington, I was involved in what the Negroes, I mean, blacks were thinking, what they were feeling.