Joseph R. Biden Jr. Quotes

No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.

The elemental human desire for self-government knows no geographical or racial boundaries.

I think I see a free and independent kingdom delivering up that which all the world hath been fighting for …, to wit a power to manage their own affairs by themselves without the assistance and counsel of any other.

I think democracy is a universal idea and I think letting people rule themselves happens to be something that serves America and America’s interests.

No people without a government of their own can expect to be treated on the same level as people of independent sovereign states. It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else . . .

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

Russian democracy is the power of the Russian people with their own traditions of national self-government, and not the realisation of standards foisted on us from outside.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

The advent of self-government for the Iraqi people is a watershed moment in their history.

Liberty means more to me than life itself.

Taiwan is an independent sovereign country.

I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.

The Malagasy people must have the liberty to choose their own future.

We need to give the Iraqis a chance to build their own future. It should be in their hands. It must be in their hands. That is what democracy is all about. We can teach it, we can explain it, but they must want it enough to make it work for them.

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

The best way of learning to be an independent sovereign state is to be an independent sovereign state.

Argentina wouldn't exist if not for self-determination, and this can't be valid for some but not for others.

While it's very hard to know exactly how to measure public opinion there, because there's no really good polling, the fact of the matter is that in all the polls I've seen the vast majority of the Iraqis prefer to be free and are pleased that the coalition freed them.

The sovereignty of republics is an historical inevitability.

Success will crown our efforts, because the destiny of America has been irrevocably decided; the tie that bound her to Spain has been severed.

If you give people an opportunity for self government and freedom, most people will reach for freedom

The country shall be independent, and we will be satisfied with nothing short of it.

Democracy substitutes self-restraint for external restraint. It is more difficult to maintain than to achieve.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

Our ancestors have always regarded independence as fundamental to the concept of a nation.