Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

— Joe Biden

You want to know whether we're better off? I've got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!

— Joe Biden

The Chinese have figured out that they have a giant environmental problem. Folks in Beijing, some days, literally can't breathe. Over a million Chinese die prematurely every year because of air pollution.

— Joe Biden

No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I don't say very much I don't really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent with Joe Biden.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

— Joe Biden

The Middle East is hopeful. There's hope there.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

There's only one person in this race who will be there, who's always been there for you, and that's Hillary Clinton's life story.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I know I'm not supposed to like muscle cars, but I like muscle cars.

— Joe Biden

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

The Recovery Act is working, but it's going to continue to work. It's not over. A lot's going to happen this summer. And even after the summer, there's more to come with the act.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately.

— Joe Biden

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

In the good old days when I was a senator, I was my own man.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The Middle East is hopeful. There's hope there.

— Joe Biden

For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

You're looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The devastating punch we took on September 11th still reverberates throughout American society.

— Joe Biden

America doesn't have health insurance.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

Let's just be smart this time. I'm looking for smart.

— Joe Biden

It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General Beau Biden would make a great United States Senator - just as I believe he has been a great Attorney General. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life, that any office he sought, he would earn on his own.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it's funny. And it's not funny. It's not.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Nowhere is it written that there must be conflict between the United States and China.

— Joe Biden

'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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine's economy.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

I have never left another senator out to dry. Never.

— Joe Biden

There is no inherent power in the office of the vice presidency. Zero. None. It's all a reflection of your relationship with the president. I mean, Kennedy never let Johnson in the office.

— Joe Biden

I have a really close relationship with Mike Bloomberg.

— Joe Biden

We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

— Joe Biden

You are twice as likely to be struck by lightning as you around to be affected by a terrorist event in the United States.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Global energy security is a vital part of America's national security.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

— Joe Biden

Well, I was 29 years old when I came to the United States Senate, and I have learned a lot.

— Joe Biden

I love that Cadillac ATS!

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

During the 60's, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.

— Joe Biden

I have 'Parents' magazine in my home.

— Joe Biden

No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. And there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime.

— Joe Biden

I know I'm not supposed to like muscle cars, but I like muscle cars.

— Joe Biden

You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it's open season on anybody who stutters.

— Joe Biden

I didn't play soccer; I played that other football in grade school through college.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

Arafat's departure has created an awesome opportunity.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

You know we're going to control the insurance companies.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.

— Joe Biden

In my heart, I'm confident I could make a good president.

— Joe Biden

Just talk to me as a father - not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?

— Joe Biden

We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

— Joe Biden

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

— Joe Biden

Other than being crazy enough to press a button, there is nothing that Putin can do militarily to fundamentally alter American interests.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

— Joe Biden

There used to be an old bad joke. I hope it's not so much a good joke anymore. 'Everybody's from Scranton; no one's in Scranton.'

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

It's overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

The United States supports a strong, united Ukraine with productive and peaceful relationships with both the East and the West, with both Russia and Europe.

— Joe Biden

When we wrote the Constitution, the intention was to give the commander in chief the authority how to use the forces when you authorize him to be able to use the forces.

— Joe Biden

People should not be in a position where their children have access to weapons and ammunition.

— Joe Biden

You've got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.

— Joe Biden

Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

In my neighborhood, when you've got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

No nation should threaten its neighbors by massing troops along the border.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

You're president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

— Joe Biden

America doesn't have health insurance.

— Joe Biden

As a matter of fact, I didn't make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I'll have a window with a view.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

In the good old days when I was a senator, I was my own man.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

The American people have not become heartless.

— Joe Biden

I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I'm just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.

— Joe Biden

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.

— 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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

If you're in a confined aircraft; when one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I'm not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts. You know, that's not me.

— Joe Biden

Income inequity has to be addressed.

— Joe Biden

I was not an activist.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.

— Joe Biden

Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that either the Democratic or Republican party has produced at least since I've been around. He's fresh, he's new, he's insightful.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Most liberals think of civil liberties as their Achilles heel. It isn't.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Two million felons have tried to buy a gun and, because of the background check, have been denied.

— Joe Biden

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.

— 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.

— Joe Biden

Saudi Arabia has allowed training on its soil of American forces.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

No nation should stoke instability in its neighbor's country.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren't supposed to make money!

— Joe Biden

I've been really, really fortunate.

— Joe Biden

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

— Joe Biden

There's no political point worth my son's life.

— Joe Biden

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it's funny. And it's not funny. It's not.

— Joe Biden

There's a lot of revisionist history that goes on these days about Iraq.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I've known and continue to know every one of these major world leaders by their first names, and I have access to them.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The Qataris have cut off support for the most extreme elements of terrorist organizations.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.'

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren't supposed to make money!

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

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.

— 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

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

The standard of judgment is no longer results but the flickering image of seriousness, skillfully crafted to squeeze into 30 seconds on the nightly news. In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.

— 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

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

But I respectfully suggest, Major, that the responsibility is slightly above your pay grade, to decide whether to take the nation to war alone, or to take the nation to war part way, or to take the Nation to work half-way. That is a real tough decision.

— Joe Biden

The greatest gift is the ability to forget - to forget the bad things and focus on the good.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent … I'm not joking.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

I'm not exploring. I’m in. And this is the beginning of a marathon

— Joe Biden

There's good reason to be excited. You have the first woman running who is qualified, and a very attractive African-American who has demonstrated crossover appeal. I got involved in politics 40 years ago during the civil rights movement, so yes, it's an exciting thing.

— Joe Biden

The average voter out there understands that the next president is going to have to be prepared to immediately step in without hesitation and end our involvement in Iraq. It's very difficult to figure out how to move on to broader foreign policy concerns without fixing Iraq first.

— Joe Biden

People ask if I can compete with the money of Hillary and Barack. I hope at the end of the day, they can compete with my ideas and my experience.

— 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

The one thing I want my kids to remember about me is that I was an athlete. The hell with the rest of this stuff.

— 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

When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it." Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.

— Joe Biden

Full disclosure: I do not have absolute faith in the judgment and wisdom of the American people. We're all human, and we can all be misled. When leaders don't level with citizens, we can't expect them to make good judgments. But I do have absolute faith in the heart of the American people. The greatest resource in this country is the grit, the resolve, the courage, the basic decency, and the stubborn pride of its citizens.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

I had no place to go. It was up or out.

— 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

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

I didn't argue that the war in Vietnam was immoral; it was merely stupid and a horrendous waste of time, money, and lives based on a flawed premise.

— Joe Biden

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

— Joe Biden

When seagull droppings landed on my head at a campaign event at Bowers Beach two days before Election Day, I chose to read it as a sign of a coming success.

— Joe Biden

The first few days I felt trapped in a constant twilight of vertigo, like in the dream where you're suddenly falling... only I was constantly falling. In moments of fitful sleep I was aware of the dim possibility that I would wake up, truly wake up, and this would not have happened.

— 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

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

— Joe Biden

A better man might have handled the situation with more grace than I did. A better man would have been able to separate his personal life from his career.

— Joe Biden

There is a great deal of pressure, in the one particular area at least, to prostitute our ideas, if not our integrity.

— Joe Biden

Sleep was like a phantom I was too tired to chase.

— Joe Biden

A convicted felon who had strong family ties, a stake in the community, and an education might get probation, while a man who had few family ties, little stake in the community, and little education might draw a ten-year sentence for the same crime.

— 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

You've got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.

— Joe Biden

As I pushed through to the podium, I could hear people murmuring under their breath: "There he is... Goddam Biden.... Kill the sonofabitch." And these were my voters- working-class Democrats.

— Joe Biden

It required a lot less energy, intelligence, and competence to run against government than to try to make government work.

— Joe Biden

Just because our political heroes were murdered does not mean that the dream does not still live, buried deep in our broken hearts.

— 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

I, too, believe there are natural rights that predate any written political or legal documents; we have these rights merely because we're children of God.

— Joe Biden

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....

— Joe Biden

My own father had always said the measure of a man wasn't how many times or how hard he got knocked down, but how fast he got back up.

— Joe Biden

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

— Joe Biden

I think you're a damn war criminal and you should be tried as one.

— Joe Biden

There is never a time when a president can act to stop a tragedy from occurring without being held politically accountable one way or the other. If he does it and fails, he's wrong. If he does it and succeeds, he was never right because it didn't happen. If we go in and stop an act of genocide, we can't prove what we stopped.

— Joe Biden

I learned later that the surgeon who put Dole back together after he was so badly injured in World War II was an Armenian whose family had deep memories of the genocidal campaign the Turks had waged against them.

— Joe Biden

The carnage was over, but there was still a bitter taste in my mouth.

— 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

Given Iraq's strategic location, its large oil reserves, and the suffering of the Iraqi people, we cannot afford to replace a despot with chaos. It would be a tragedy if we removed a tyrant in Iraq only to leave chaos in its wake.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

I made a mistake. I underestimated the influence of Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and the rest of the neocons; I vastly underestimated their disingenuousness and incompetence. So George W. Bush went to war again, and just the way the neocons wanted him to- without significant international backing.

— Joe Biden

Things never got better, and Rumsfeld and Cheney never got any wiser. It became increasingly clear that those two men had eroded our country's claim to any moral high ground by flouting the Geneva Conventions. They forced policy decisions that allowed the hideous prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and encouraged the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners at our facility in Guantánamo in Cuba. I wasn't shy about hammering Rumsfeld.

— Joe Biden

It was that hard; I still feel that way. But I believe that President Bush failed to lead. History will judge him harshly not for the mistakes he made- we all make mistakes- but for the opportunities he squandered.

— Joe Biden

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

— Joe Biden

For the world to follow, we must do more than rattle our sabers and demand allegienace to our vision simply because we believe we are right. We must provide a reason for others to aspire to that vision. And that reason must come with more than the repetition of a bumper-sticker phrase about freedom and democracy. It must come with more than the restatement of failed policy. It must come with the wisdom to admit when we are wrong and resolve to change course and get it right.

— Joe Biden

My memory is not as good as... Chief Justice Roberts.

— Joe Biden

Ties between our two countries are literally, literally unbreakable.

— Joe Biden

Look, I am Vice President of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

Even the oil companies don't need an incentive of $4 billion to go out and explore. As my grandpop would say, 'They’re doing just fine, thank you'.

— 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

The Chinese have figured out that they have a giant environmental problem. Folks in Beijing, some days, literally can't breathe. Over a million Chinese die prematurely every year because of air pollution.

— Joe Biden

We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line. Don't forget it.

— Joe Biden

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden

The greatest gift is the ability to forget - to forget the bad things and focus on the good.

— Joe Biden

My dad always said, 'Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.'

— Joe Biden

If I don't run for president, we'll all be OK.

— Joe Biden

Reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.

— Joe Biden

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

— Joe Biden

Corruption is just another form of tyranny.

— Joe Biden

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.

— Joe Biden