Joe Biden Quotes

73 Sourced Quotes

Tonight, the whole world is watching America. I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe. And we lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.

Joe Biden
I've always believed we can define America in one word: possibilities. That in America everyone should be given the opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God-given ability will take them.

Joe Biden
This is a great nation. And we are a good people. This is the United States of America. And there has never been anything we haven't been able to do when we've done it together.

Joe Biden
Our nation is shaped by the constant battle between our better angels and our darkest impulses. It is time for our better angels to prevail.

Joe Biden
We stand again at an inflection point. We have the opportunity to defeat despair and to build a nation of prosperity and purpose. We can do it. I know we can. I've long talked about the battle for the soul of America. We must restore the soul of America.

Joe Biden
And now, together – on eagle's wings – we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do. With full hearts and steady hands, with faith in America and in each other, with a love of country – and a thirst for justice – let us be the nation that we know we can be. A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America.

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

Joe Biden
To Slobodan Milosevic:
I think you're a damn war criminal and you should be tried as one.
Slobodan Milosevic served as the President of Serbia from 1989 to 1992

Joe Biden
I wasn't built to look the other way because the law demanded it. The law might be wrong.

Joe Biden
It is an exciting and dangerous time, for this generation of Americans has the opportunity so rarely granted to others by fate and history. We literally have the chance to shape the future - to put our own stamp on the face and character of America, to bend history just a little bit.

Joe Biden
I knew I had to be sure-footed about the issues I was talking about. When you're twenty-nine years old, who the hell is going to think you're credible? It wasn't enough to have ideas; I had to know my facts. I had to demonstrate command from the minute I started running. I understood that was the test I had to pass.

Joe Biden
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.

Joe Biden
When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'

Joe Biden
No President of the United States could represent the United States were he not committed to human rights. If you don't understand this, you can't deal with us. President Barack Obama would not be able to stay in power if he did not speak of it. So look at it as a political imperative. It doesn't make us better or worse. It's who we are. You make your decisions. We'll make ours.

Joe Biden
Most of all I was numb, but there were moments when the pain cut through like a shard of broken glass. I began to understand how despair led people to just cash it in; how suicide wasn't just an option but a rational option.

Joe Biden
These were al-Qaeda fighters, the first I'd ever seen up close, and they looked like badasses. As I passed on the outskirts of the grid, many of the prisoners stared directly at me. None of them cowered. I've been in a lot of prisons, but these guys showed a ferocity and a hatred unlike any I'd ever seen.

Joe Biden
I'm not exploring. I'm in. And this is the beginning of a marathon
Referring to his choice not to set up an "exploratory committee" and instead enter the race directly

Joe Biden
Alan Cranston understood power not as a reflection of status but as a tool with a purpose.

Joe Biden
I'm running for president because I think that, with a lot of help, I can stem the tide of this slide and restore America's leadership in the world and change our priorities. I will argue that my experience and my track record — both on the foreign and domestic side — put me in a position to be able to do that.

Joe Biden
No matter how well intended our country is, we cannot expect other nations to trust us as much as we trust ourselves.

Joe Biden
The fabric of our complex society is woven too tightly to permit any part of it to be damaged without damaging the whole.

Joe Biden
Rudy Giuliani — there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11.

Joe Biden
We got a real clear picture of what they all value. 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 hundred days he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, 'unchain Wall Street'. They're going to put y'all back in chains.

Joe Biden
I think I instinctively understood that my most important duty was to be a target. People were desperate to vent their anger, and if they could yell at a united States senator, all the better. Part of being a public servant, I came to understand in 1978, was absorbing the anger of people who don't know where to turn. If I couldn't solve the problem for them, I had to at least be an outlet.

Joe Biden
For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community. For too long as a nation, we have been lulled by the anthem of self-interest. For a decade, led by Ronald Reagan, self-aggrandizement has been the full-throated cry of this society: 'I've got mine, so why don't you get yours' and 'What's in it for me?'

Joe Biden