Jill Biden Quotes
First Lady of the United States
Education teaches us compassion and kindness, connection to others.
I've always believed you've got to steal the joyful moments when you can.
Life is difficult, and if you sit around waiting for fun to show up, you'll find yourself going without it more often than not.
I grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, with my parents and sisters, but my family would drive every weekend to Hammonton, where both my grandparents lived and where my parents were raised.
We know that education is the key to unlocking human potential.
There's nothing that's more unfair or unjust than people using their power to try to make other people feel small, to tell them who they are or what they are capable of, to say their identity doesn't belong.
I have always had a great deal of respect and admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a true humanitarian and champion of Women's Rights and Civil Rights.
I mean, my students are texting me all the time. It could be 10 o'clock at night, 'Hey Dr. B., can you check my thesis statement?' You know, I'm in bed!
My students have shown me so many times that it's not always about being the perfect person in the perfect position - it's about showing up when you're needed.
Every day, women and girls are finding incredible confidence and taking risks. When they change one mind, pretty soon, they have changed one tradition. That changed tradition has changed a village. That one village has changed a country. That new reality means new opportunities for themselves and their daughters.
Many Americans don't know anyone in the military, so they aren't aware that, on average, a military child attends six to nine schools by the time he or she graduates from high school. Through each transition, the children have to leave their friends, try out for new sports teams and adjust to a new school community.
I have visited classrooms near military bases to learn more about what schools were doing to support their military kids. I met with teachers overseas to learn about the particular needs they face thousands of miles from America. And I listened to my own granddaughter, who dealt with her father's yearlong deployment to Iraq.
People need to realize that community colleges really give you a good education. And they do - that's just a simple fact of it.
I think exercise is really important, not just for your physical self, for your body, but for your head.
When students come to the community college, they're focused. They know what they want to do, and they have a certain amount of time to do it.
There was a little nook on Air Force Two that contained the vice presidential seal, and I would sort of wedge myself in there and grade papers on the floor.
I try to take good care of myself.
Every day, I see my students work hard to overcome obstacles just to be in the classroom.
I was a Senate spouse for many, many years. I kept my own career. I was teaching and Joe was doing politics. I realized when we were elected vice president that I had a platform and I knew I was not going to waste my platform. It was going to focus women and girls' education.
You know, cancer is bipartisan. I mean, there are so many people whose lives are touched and changed by cancer that people are willing to work together to find cures, find solutions, make lives better for cancer patients. So I think people put politics aside. This isn't a political thing. This is a life issue.
I'm good at separating things. When I'm in my classroom, I'm totally there. When I'm at an event, I'm totally there. And when I'm with my grandkids, my total attention is on them.
We need good reading programs, and we need equity in schools.
Most women I know have been harassed in some way. And you never wanted to report it, because you were afraid of losing your job or you felt like, hey, did that just happen? I think it's good that women now... have the courage! Because it's not easy.
Well, when I'm out running, people don't recognize me, which is great. I don't feel pressure; I'm not out to beat anybody or hit a certain time. I just do it for the enjoyment of it. I'm doing it for myself.
We can learn something from every single medical interaction. Every case, every patient has a lesson to teach us.
Not only had I not expected a random call from Joe Biden, but I could never have imagined he would make that call to ask me out. I've been asked if I was starstruck by the fact that a U.S. senator thought I was worth a call, but I honestly wasn't. I was flattered that someone I'd heard of was interested.
Marrying Joe wasn't just about him. It was about Hunter and Beau as well. They had endured the loss of one mother already, and I couldn't risk having them lose another.
We've seen the struggle, and we know that most American families are dealing with some sort of struggle like we are. And I think they can relate to us, you know, as parents who are hopeful and are supportive of our son, and we will continue to be supportive. And I think that makes us more empathetic about helping other Americans.
I know the injustice of outliving a child, the pain of a future stolen away, of mourning forever a voice you'll never hear.
Back in 2008, after we'd won the election, no one really expected me to keep teaching. But I couldn't just walk away... So I did both. For eight years, that was my life's dichotomy. State receptions - and midterms. Dinner with the most powerful man on earth - and study sessions with single moms.
I mean, I deal with so many problems on a personal basis with my students and I think to myself, 'Nobody ever trained me to do this.'
When I go to the supermarket, I can see people looking in my cart. So I have to be careful what I buy and when. I send my sister to Costco to pick up the personal items.
I'm an English teacher, so I'm used to reading and I'm used to reading out loud.
It was important to me that Beau and Hunter felt our family was whole, and that meant we got to define our relationship, not anyone else.
We have asked a lot of our military families and I believe they deserve the very best efforts of each of us to show them how much we appreciate their service to our country.
People know Joe Biden. They've seen the strong parts of his character and how resilient he is.
One day I was teaching my class and then I had to go to the White House right after, so literally, I took my dress to school. After my classes I went into the ladies room, changed into my outfit, got into the car, went to the White House. So there are real, you know, Superman moments!
Community colleges are the way of the future.
My students are working one, sometimes two jobs. They have kids. They're going school. They're dealing with real everyday problems. They are inspiring because they're trying to get ahead and make a better life for themselves and their kids.
The role I have always felt most at home in is being 'Dr. B.'
We need women to better reflect the social fabric of our society.
Most people probably don't know that Joe has a romantic side to him.
We can be proud of a president that brings families together instead of tearing them apart. A president who believes our best days are ahead of us. That's Joe Biden.
Well, I'm a runner, and I have to run with Secret Service - even though they can run twice as fast. It took me a while to get used to running with them, because I love the solitary aspect of it. So I have two rules. First, I can't hear their feet. And second, I can't see their shadows.
Teaching is not a job. It's a lifestyle. It permeates your whole life.
On the campaign trail, I have the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life - from residents at a battered women's shelter to mentally handicap children to retirees - and learn about their lives and struggles.
Since Beau's death, I'm definitely shattered. I feel like a piece of china that's been glued back together again. The cracks may be imperceptible-but they're there. Look closely, and you can see the glue holding me together, the precarious edges that vein through my heart. I am not the same. I feel it every day.
Education doesn't just make us smarter. It makes us whole.
I think that running creates a sense of balance in my life. And it really calms me down.
I remember my grandmother taking me and my sisters to the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. We would watch the diving bell and see the diving horse jump into the pool. We would take the bus there, and I just smile thinking about all of us running around the pier on those days.
Education is possibility set in motion.
Well, when Joe Biden is president you will no longer see this separation of families along the border. We welcome these families to enter into the United States.
The White House is a serious place, with serious people, doing serious work. If you're not careful, it can grind you down.
A lot of students who are 18 or 19 go to college partly for the social aspect of it. At the community college, people's goals are a little different. Their needs are more immediate.
I worry about my children worrying about me, feeling like they need to be the strong ones. It's not the right order of things.
Sometimes I feel like I've forgotten how to be the mom after the death of my son.
I have great friends.
May God bless our troops.
The American people know Joe Biden. They know his values. They know what he stands for.
What I said was that Joe's family was different than my family, that he came from a very affectionate family. My family was very loving, but we didn't show that kind of affection. So for me, that took me a little while to get used to that.
I think it's important how I come across to my students. I want them to see how professional women dress.
Let's face it, we really did need something like this in this country to fight childhood obesity.
I buy my own clothes. I have a teacher's salary.
We can end cancer as we know it.
I loved teaching English and giving my students confidence.
As a lifelong educator and as part of a military family, the way we reach out to military children in our classrooms has been especially close to my heart.
It sounds so trite to say I make a difference, but I really feel, especially in a community college, I can make a difference.
I never took a political science course.
I'm not a politician. I am an English teacher.
I'm a gardener, and I love to plant.
People have not really noticed community colleges, but they are where students really become successful.
I never used to speak at all. I always said Joe is the speaker of the family. I mean, I'd go to events and volunteer, but I was never a speaker.
So many people in my life need prayers, and I feel like I owe that to them. After all, in heaven, we feed each other.
I think I am a tough grader, because I feel like it's my job to teach them to write well. I hope my students say I'm a fair teacher.
I think when people hear my book on Audible, they'll hear the inflection in my voice, the tone, and understand me a little bit better and understand my family a little bit better in the ways that I tell the stories. Some are told with laughter, and some are told with sadness.
What's on my iPod? Well, certainly Bruce Springsteen.
There is a stigma attached to community colleges, and we do need to change the narrative.
I'm not a lady who lunches.
I don't think any mother who has lost a child is ever the same.
I've said it before, but community colleges are the best-kept secret in the nation.
I love the women who are coming back to school and getting their degrees because they're so focused.
Life is change.
I think it's important for every woman to have her own money and be independent.
I had a number of part-time jobs after school in Willow Grove, but I did work for two summers in Ocean City as a waitress at Chris' Seafood Restaurant. I loved it.
Actually, after many years on the campaign trail, there is not a particular food that I've come across that I would avoid.
I was in the classroom four days after the inauguration, because I said to Joe when we got elected, 'Joe, I really want to continue to teach.' And he said, 'Absolutely. You should be doing what you love.' Politics - that's Joe's life, really, his love. But teaching is mine.
I am not a speaker. The more you do it, the easier it becomes, but I always want to be prepared, and I always practice my speeches; I never do it off the cuff.
Cancer has been a dark thread that has run throughout my life. It's taken my friends, my parents. My beautiful son.
I feel that exercise really balances me. Then I layer on the other obligations that I have.
I guess the White House is kind of confining.
The passage of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 was a substantial victory for community colleges.
Teaching is what I've always done.
For laid-off workers, community colleges offer job-certification programs that teach new skills and professions.
Health is very important to me.
There were times when I actually prayed not to get married.
As a political spouse, I've found that my stoicism often serves me well.
I had grown up with four sisters.
I am an educator.
I knew that it was harder to unite two lives than I had imagined growing up. I knew that relationships could be fragile.
I'm a grandmother.