Joe Biden Quotes
46th President of the United States
Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.
Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately.
Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.
If you need more than 10 rounds to hunt, and some argue they hunt with that many rounds, you shouldn't be hunting. If you can't get the deer in 3 shots, you shouldn't be hunting. You are an embarrassment.
Here at home, when Americans were standing in long lines to give blood after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we squandered an obvious opportunity to make service a noble cause again, and rekindle an American spirit of community.
My dad always said, 'Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.'
Reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.
The effects of climate change are real and must be acted on.
We didn't crumble after 9/11. We didn't falter after the Boston Marathon. But we're America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.
My father used to have an expression. He'd say, 'Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in your community.'
Quite frankly, Russian aggression in Ukraine and its illegal occupation of Crimea remind us that we still have a good deal more work to do to guarantee the strategic vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.
The greatest gift is the ability to forget - to forget the bad things and focus on the good.
No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It's because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand - demand - demand change.
My dad used to have an expression - 'It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.'
ISIS is not an existential threat to something happening to someone in the United States of America. It's a serious problem overseas, but it's confusing and frightening.
Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.
Other than being crazy enough to press a button, there is nothing that Putin can do militarily to fundamentally alter American interests.
When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'
Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.
Let's just be smart this time. I'm looking for smart.
I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn't mean I won't run.
If I don't run for president, we'll all be OK.
Global energy security is a vital part of America's national security.
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.
Two million felons have tried to buy a gun and, because of the background check, have been denied.
I support immediate financial assistance to the newly elected Palestinian president. Now, I don't know what those numbers will be, and I don't know how it's going to be framed.
Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America.
I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it's funny. And it's not funny. It's not.
You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it's open season on anybody who stutters.
I have no doubt that Russia will and should remain a major source of energy supplies for Europe and the world.
I don't say very much I don't really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent with Joe Biden.
Romania can be a linchpin in delivering gas to its neighbors and even become an energy exporter for its neighbors across Central and Eastern Europe.
No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.
In my heart, I'm confident I could make a good president.
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.
Life is a matter of really tough choices.
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.
Saudi Arabia has allowed training on its soil of American forces.
I exaggerate when I'm angry, but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.
We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.
We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line. Don't forget it.
For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.
Corruption is just another form of tyranny.
In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.
We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's a Thomas Jefferson hiding behind some rock or a James Madison beyond one sand dune.
Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?'. The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you.
For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.
Don't hold against me that I don't own - that I don't own a single stock or bond. Don't hold it - I have no savings accounts.
The Qataris have cut off support for the most extreme elements of terrorist organizations.
Unions did in fact build the middle class. And here's what that did. That built the United States of America as we know it.
Abe Foxman has been a friend and advisor of mine for a long time.
No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama's plan will see one single penny of their tax raised, whether it's their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.
This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.
It's overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.
We're close friends - the American people, the Israeli people, our governments. There's absolutely no daylight - none - between us and the Israelis on the question of Israel's security.
I used to say to my late wife, 'I have great faith in the American people.'
Prime Minister Netanyahu has, as Minister Livni knows, has been my friend for over 30 years. We drive each other crazy. But he has truly been a personal friend for well over 30 years. He acknowledged this.
The devastating punch we took on September 11th still reverberates throughout American society.
In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking.
I've been waiting over 40 years to come to Cyprus, and it has not disappointed - the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Crossroads of Civilization, and, I might add, a genuine strategic partner to the United States of America.
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've been really, really fortunate.
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.
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.
I have an expression I use as I've gone around the world through my career: 'You never tell another man or woman what's in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.'
Nowhere is it written that there must be conflict between the United States and China.
America's experience, like many others, teaches us that fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic policy or developing the best educated curricula. It's about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish.
Just talk to me as a father - not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?
A diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran's nuclear program represents the best and most sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel, the entire Middle East will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran.
In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.
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.
Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.
You know we're going to control the insurance companies.
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.
Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I've met with, and I've met them all: It's never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.
One of the things I've never been accused of is not caring about people.
The White House isn't the place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the balance of power, war and peace, and the economic future of the next generation.
In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.
It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.
In the good old days when I was a senator, I was my own man.
I know why we're strong. I know why we have held together; I know why we are united: it's because there's always been a growing middle class.
You are twice as likely to be struck by lightning as you around to be affected by a terrorist event in the United States.
The Middle East is hopeful. There's hope there.
You're looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.
You've all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character - one of the finest presidents we have ever had.
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.
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.
The 21st century is going to be the American century. Because we lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America.
'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.
In the middle of a recession, where we're just climbing out of it, where the economy -unemployment is still at 9.7 percent, the idea of raising taxes and reducing spending is a prescription for disaster.
This is absolutely bizarre that we continue to subsidize highways beyond the gasoline tax, airlines, and we don't subsidize, we don't want to subsidize a national rail system that has environmental impact.
There's no political point worth my son's life.
During the 60's, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.
No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it's not about the solvency of Social Security.
I'm not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts. You know, that's not me.
We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.
Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine's economy.
On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.
The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras have all agreed to send additional consular officers from Guatemala, from Honduras, from El Salvador, send them to the U.S. border so that we can more quickly and humanely identify unaccompanied children and process their individual removal.