Joseph R. Biden Jr. Quotes

Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine's economy.

Putin recognized that if he could get enough money, everything would be under control.

The appalling reality in American politics today is that, when ideology and money mix, truth is a mere inconvenience.

There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through.

I think that what went wrong with religion is the same thing that went wrong with politics. Is that it became too money based and too controlling. It's just a weakness that we human beings have for control - we want one thing and then we want more and then we want more.

Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.

A demagogue is a person with whom we disagree as to which gang should mismanage the country.

Putin can't afford to leave the office because he will be in real danger of being prosecuted for things he and his people did during their stay in power.

And look at the mess that Russia is; most Chinese don't want to follow that.

If you really think that ambition, power, lust, desire are not as applicable in the media as in politics or on Wall Street or anywhere else, you're deluding yourself.

It looks like the so-called "winners" of the Cold War are determined to have it all, and reshape the world into a place that could better serve their interests alone.

For Mr. Putin, vacillation invites aggression. His world is a brutish, cynical place, where power is worshiped, weakness is despised, and all rivalries are zero-sum.

Let's face it, politics in this country is coin-operated. Does that really equate to a real democracy? It's very difficult to say.

I really can't abide conspiracy theories, because I believe that everything in the world stems from idiocy and incompetence. That's certainly true of most of what's happened in Russia under Putin.

Many politicians in the West cling to the notion of a partnership with Russia. They want to include [Vladimir] Putin, make compromises and constantly negotiate new deals with him. But history has taught us that the longer we pursue appeasement and do nothing, the higher the price will be later on. Dictators don't ask "Why?" before they seize even more power. They ask: "Why not?"

Washington is dominated by big money.

You can't trust anybody with power.

A politician's goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power.

Power without abuse loses its charm.

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.

If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.

Russia - having sat across the table from Vladimir Putin, it's pretty clear when you meet him that he has an almost limitless ambition for power. And he's been very good at acquiring it - political power, economic power, military power, territorial power.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce the policy of strength toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness.

Here we were, corrupting all those Russians toward communism.