Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes

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

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.

Anger, resentment, envy, and self-pity are wasteful reactions. They greatly drain one's time. They sap energy better devoted to productive endeavors.

We should learn ... to do our best for the sake of our communities and for the sake of those for whom we pave the way.

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

Women's rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda, trained on the equal dignity and ability to live in freedom all people should enjoy.

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it is best to be a little hard of hearing — to tune out and not snap back in anger or impatience.

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

Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.

I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.

Every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does not.

If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are.

There is a Constitutional right to prostitution.

I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman's equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.

Work for the things that you care about.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.

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

I didn't change the Constitution; the equality principle was there from the start. I just was an advocate for seeing its full realization.

A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.

It is not women's liberation, it is women's and men's liberation.

So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

A prime part of the history of our Constitution is the story of the extension of constitutional rights to people once ignored or excluded.

If I had any talent God could give me, I would be a great diva.

The written argument endures. The oral argument is fleeting.

People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.

Congress could always stop the President if Congress thinks that what the President has done exceeds the President's authority or is just wrong for the United States.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

I would not like to be the only woman on the court.

I became a lawyer for selfish reasons. I thought I could do a lawyer’s job better than any other.

The Second Amendment is outdated in the sense that its function has become obsolete.

When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

I do think that being the second [female Supreme Court Justice] is wonderful, because it is a sign that being a woman in a place of importance is no longer extraordinary.

Dissents speak to a future age.

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

When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.

Prisons should be co-ed because separate quarters are discriminatory.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

It's great to be in the position of asking questions and not having to answer questions.

I think our system is being polluted by money.

When I graduated from law school in 1959, there wasn't a single woman on any federal bench. It wouldn't be a realistic ambition for a woman to want to become a federal judge.

Members of the legislature, people who have run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed

You would have a huge statelessness problem if you don't consider a child born abroad a U.S. citizen.

Adult women are able to make decisions about their own lives' course no less than men are.

Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

In most civil law systems there are no dissents. There is a single opinion for the court: it is unanimous; it is highly stylized; you can't tell which judge wrote it.

One aspect of appellate judging is we have to give reasons for all of our decisions. And when you sit down and try to write it out, sometimes you find that your first judgment wasn't the right one.

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.

Depriving a parent of parental status is as devastating as a criminal conviction.