Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes

Born
March 15, 1933, New York City, New York, U.S.

Died
September 18, 2020.

Occupation
Judge.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

It is not like I have gone crazy, I just don’t want to take any chances. You never know what could happen.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I would not like to be the only woman on the court.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The women of my generation and my daughter’s generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The concern was that if a woman was doing gender equality, her chances of making it to tenure in the law school were diminished. It was considered frivolous.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It won’t happen. It would be an impossible dream. But I’d love to see ‘Citizens United’ overruled.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dissents speak to a future age.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

‘Whole Women’s Health’ made it very clear that poor women were no longer going to be left out.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I think daughters can change the perception of their fathers.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I think unconscious bias is one of the hardest things to get at.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

If I had any talent that God could give me, I would be a great diva.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I was a proponent of the ERA.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I really concentrate on what’s on my plate at the moment and do the very best I can.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I do a variety of weight-lifting, elliptical glider, stretching exercises, push-ups.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

All I can say is I am sensitive to discrimination on any basis because I have experienced that upset.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

We’ve come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

In truth, I did enjoy the benefits of a Harvard connection.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

You can disagree without being disagreeable.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

At my advanced age – I’m now an octogenarian – I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who want to take my picture.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A gender line… helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations… They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‘We, the people.’
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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.’
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Democrats do fine in presidential elections; their problem is they can’t get out the vote in the midterm elections.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I will do this job as long as I feel that I can do it full steam.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg