Joe Biden: Trending quotes (page 4)

“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

In response to the question, "You're comfortable with same-sex marriage now?" Meet the Press (May 6, 2012)
2010s

Women , Men

“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

Page 73
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Reading , Success

“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

Page 353
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Wisdom , World , Democracy , Freedom

“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

On the national debate, Speech http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/10/us/biden-joins-campaign-for-the-presidency.html announcing entry into 1988 presidential race, Wilmington, Delaware (June 10, 1987)
1980s

Fate , History , Chance , Time

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

Joe Biden

Page 96
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Sleep

“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

Page 351
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Men , Decision , Country

“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

Page 281
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Way , Time

“I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in. I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy: it's job envy, it's wealthy envy; that we don't dream. My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, that I could be, I could be vice president! My mother and father believed that if my brother or sister wanted to be a millionaire, they could be a millionaire! My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams! They don't get us! They don't get who we are!”

Joe Biden

Criticizing Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, campaign speech http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/joe-biden-lays-into-romney-gop-they-dont-get-who-we-are/ in Youngstown, Ohio (May 16, 2012)
2010s

Family , Dreams , Guy , Thinking

“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

Source: 2000s, Promises to Keep (2008), Page 127

People

“Israel will not get everything it asks for
…
I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years -- the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures -- they're moving us, and, more importantly, they're moving Israel in the wrong direction”

Joe Biden

19 April 2016 The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/joe-biden-us-overwhelming-frustration-israeli-government
2010s

Past

“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

Pages 65-66
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Money , War , Stupidity , Time

“He wanted me to understand two big things: First, that nobody, no group, is above others. Public servants are obliged to level with everybody, whether or not they'll like what he has to say. And second, that politics was a matter of personal honor. A man's word is his bond. You give your word, you keep it. For as long as I can remember, I've had a sort of romantic notion of what politics should be- and can be. If you do politics the right way, I believe, you can actually make people's lives better. And integrity is the minimum ante to get into the game. Nearly forty years after I first got involved, I remain captivated by the possibilities of politics and public service. In fact, I believe- as I know my grandpop did- that my chosen profession is a noble calling.”

Joe Biden

Pages xv-xvi
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

People , Way , Game , Understanding

“My memory is not as good as… Chief Justice Roberts.”

Joe Biden

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/21/biden-jabs-roberts-for-oath-flub/ Remarks] while administering oath of office for White House senior staff; poking fun at memorable incident in which John G. Roberts misplaced words while swearing-in President Obama at the presidential inauguration the previous day (January 21, 2009)
2000s

Justice , Memory

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

Joe Biden

Democratic primary debate (October 30, 2007)
2000s

“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

Speaking of Presidential candidate Barack Obama

Biden Unbound: Lays Into Clinton, Obama, Edwards, The New York Observer, February 1, 2007, 2007-02-01 http://www.observer.com/20070205/20070205_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.html,
2000s

Guy

“I would respectfully suggest to you that the Democrats out there understand I am the only person with a plan that can get out of Iraq without our interests in the region not falling apart.”

Joe Biden

Conference call https://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/01/31/cq_2212.html?pagewanted=all with reporters after announcing candidacy for the 2008 Democratic president nomination (January 30, 2007)
2000s

Understanding , Personality

“The system wasn't working, and I thought it was time to err on the side of a new model. What might work, I thought, was a system that promoted personal accountability, consistency, and certainty. Congress could say people who committed the same federal crime, under the same circumstances, were going to jail for the same amount of time. We could give judges a narrower set of sentencing guidelines to work with, and felons would be required to pay the same price. We'd be judging the crime, not the person.”

Joe Biden

Page 123
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

People , Time , Personality

“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

Page 352
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Way , Feeling , History

“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

Source: 2000s, Promises to Keep (2008), Page 208

Time

“Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”

Joe Biden

Joe Biden Says ‘Poor Kids’ Are Just as Bright as ‘White Kids’, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/us/politics/joe-biden-poor-kids.html (9 August 2019)
2019