Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University and went on to law school at Harvard. She transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated. Appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on August 10, 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton, Ginsburg has been recognized as an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights. These Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes will remind you just what a force of nature she was during her time on the bench and beyond.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on equality
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” “People ask me sometimes, ‘When will there be enough women on the court?’ My answer is: ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.” — Georgetown Law School “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.” “The greatest statement of equality is in the Declaration of Independence, written by a slaveholder." — The New Yorker “We children of public school age can do much to aid in the promotion of peace. We must try to train ourselves and those about us to live together with one another as good neighbors for this idea is embodied in the great new Charter of the United Nations. It is the only way to secure the world against future wars and maintain an everlasting peace.” — My Own Words “It’s an unconscious bias. It’s the expectation. You have a lowered expectation when you hear a woman speaking, I think that still goes on. That instinctively when a man speaks, he will be listened to, where people will not expect the woman to say anything of value. But all of the women in my generation have had, time and again, that experience where you say something at a meeting, and nobody makes anything of it. And maybe half an hour later, a man makes the identical point, and people react to it and say, ‘Good idea.’ That, I think, is a problem that persists.” — Slate “If you’re a boy and you like teaching , you like nursing, you would like to have a doll, that’s OK. We should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be, and not be held back by artificial barriers.” “I don’t say women’s rights—I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.” “I didn’t change the Constitution; the equality principle was there from the start. I just was an advocate for seeing its full realization.” — NPR “Reliance on overbroad generalizations…estimates about the way most men or most women are, will not suffice to deny opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.” — NPR “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” “Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?” — My Own Words “The words of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause—’nor shall any state deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.’ Well that word, ‘any person,’ covers women as well as men. And the Supreme Court woke up to that reality in 1971.” — NPR “In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbor—we’re very fond of them, or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that ’this is who I am,’ the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.” “When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on dissent
“My dissenting opinions, like my briefs, are meant to persuade. And sometimes one must be forceful about saying how wrong the Court is.” — New Republic “Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” “Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions. I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful.” — NPR “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.” — My Own Words “You can disagree without being disagreeable.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on gender
“I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world. If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.” — The New York Times “My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S.” “A gender line helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.” “I remember envying the boys long before I even knew the word ‘feminism,’ because I liked shop better than cooking or sewing.” “In the 70s, when I was at Columbia and writing briefs about distinctions based on sex, and writing articles and speeches, I had a secretary, and she said, ‘I’ve been typing this word sex, sex, sex, and let me tell you, the audience that you are addressing—the men that you are addressing’—and they were all men in the appellate courts in those days—’the first association of that word is not what you’re talking about. So I suggest that you use a grammar book term; use the word “gender.” It will ward off distracting associations.’” — The New York Times “I feel great that I don’t have to be the lone woman around this place.” — The New York Times “Feminism—I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‘Free To Be You and Me.’ Free to be, if you were a girl—doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Anything you want to be.” “I think back to the days when—I don’t know who it was—when I think Truman suggested the possibility of a woman as a justice. Someone said we have these conferences and men are talking to men and sometimes we loosen our ties, sometimes even take off our shoes. The notion was that they would be inhibited from doing that if women were around. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked off my shoes. Including the time some reporter said something like, it took me a long time to get up from the bench. They worried, was I frail? To be truthful I had kicked off my shoes, and I couldn’t find my right shoe; it traveled way underneath.” — The New York Times “The side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they’re fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change.” “Indeed, in my lifetime, I expect to see three, four, perhaps even more women on the High Court Bench, women now shaped from the same mold, but of different complexions.” “Once Justice O’Connor was questioning counsel at oral argument. I thought she was done, so I asked a question, and Sandra said: ‘Just a minute, I’m not finished.’ So I apologized to her and she said, ‘It’s O.K., Ruth. The guys do it to each other all the time, they step on each other’s questions.’ And then there appeared an item in USA Today, and the headline was something like ‘Rude Ruth Interrupts Sandra.’” — The New York Times “The enormous difference between fighting gender discrimination as opposed to race discrimination is good people immediately perceive race discrimination as evil and intolerable. But when I talked about sex-based discrimination, I got the response, ‘What are you talking about? Women are treated ever so much better than men!’” “For both men and women the first step in getting power is to become visible to others, and then to put on an impressive show…As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” — My Own Words “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on marriage
“In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.” — Makers “In the course of a marriage, one accommodates the other.” “If you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it. I had a life partner who thought my work was as important as his, and I think that made all the difference for me.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on her career
“You can’t have it all, all at once.” — The New York Times “Each part of my life provided respite from the other and gave me a sense of proportion that classmates trained only on law studies lacked.” — My Own Words “Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.” “If I had any talent in the world, I would be a great diva.” “If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.” “There are some singers that know exactly when to go, and others hang on much too long and that is the same, that is the same with judges. My own view, and I’ve said this many times, is as long as I can do the work full steam, I will stay on the Court. But when I feel myself slipping, when I slow down in my ability to write opinions with fair dispatch, when I forget the names of cases that I once could recite at the drop of a hat, I will know.” — WNYC “I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability.” “I spent no time fretting, and found a way to do what I thought important to get done.” — My Own Words “It’s amazing. At the advanced age of 86, everyone wants to take a picture with me.” — The New York Times “I do think that I was born under a very bright star. Because if you think about my life, I get out of law school. I have top grades. No law firm in the city of New York will hire me. I end up teaching; it gave me time to devote to the movement for evening out the rights of women and men. " — NPR “I became a lawyer for selfish reasons. I thought I could do a lawyer’s job better than any other.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg advice
“Don’t be distracted by emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zap energy and waste time.” “I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.” “So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.” “Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.” “When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.” “If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‘You don’t know how to use the English language,’ or ‘how could you make that argument?’ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.” — The New York Times “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on family
“It bothers me when people say to make it to the top of the tree you have to give up a family.” — The New Yorker “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her wellbeing and dignity. It’s a decision she must make for herself.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes on cancer
“I love my job. It has kept me going through four cancer bouts. Instead of concentrating on my aches and pains, I just know that I have to read a set of briefs and go over a draft opinion. Somehow, I have to surmount whatever is going on in my body and concentrate on the court’s work.” — The New York Times “There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months. That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I,” she added with a smile, “am very much alive.” — NPR Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s incredible life. Get inspired with these 125 empowering quotes from some of the strongest women in history.
