Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I do a variety of weight-lifting, elliptical glider, stretching exercises, push-ups.
I don't see that my majority opinions are going to be undone.
I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.
After the pancreatic cancer, at first I went to N.I.H. every three months, then every four months, then every six months.
Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.
It's hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court.
I don't think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, 'A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.'
My mother graduated from high school at 15 and went to work to support the family because the eldest son went to college.
When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.
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.
I was a proponent of the ERA.
I think a law clerk told me about this tumblr and also explained to me what Notorious RBG was a parody on. And now my grandchildren love it, and I try to keep abreast of the latest that's on the tumblr.
Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.
In 2015, an opera opened about me and Justice Antonin Scalia. It's called 'Scalia/Ginsburg.' The composer, Derrick Wang, has degrees in music from Harvard and Yale. Enrolled in law school, he was reading dueling opinions by me and Justice Scalia and decided he could compose an appealing comic opera from them.
The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.
We had to go on and do the work of the court and we did.
Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
My resume showed membership on both the Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews, a credit impressive abroad where it was not generally known that Law Reviews were student-operated publications.
The entering class I joined in 1956 included just nine women, up from five in the then second-year class, and only one African American. All professors, in those now-ancient days, were of the same race and sex.
I was tremendously fortunate to be alive and a lawyer, working at a university so I had more flexible hours, when the women's movement was coming alive and when it became possible to argue successfully for a view of the equal protection clause that included women.
The worst times were the years I was alone. The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.
My biographers... would like to have my time at the court almost complete before they finish the book. We decided... to flip the order.
I certainly respect the belief of the Hobby Lobby owners. On the other hand, they have no constitutional right to foist that belief on the hundreds and hundreds of women who work for them who don't share that belief.
The experience I don't want to see repeated occurred in 'Bush v. Gore.' The Court divided five to four. There were four separate dissents, and that confused the press. In fact, some of the reporters announced that the decision was seven-two. There was no time to get together.
Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don't have executions.
My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn't have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.
I was a super once - an extra - in 'Die Fledermaus,' and was seated within three feet of Placido Domingo. I had never heard a voice of that beauty so close up. It felt as if an electric shock were running through me.
There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me... but a man like David Souter, that would be great.
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.Collection: Dream
Anger, resentment, envy, and self-pity are wasteful reactions. They greatly drain one's time. They sap energy better devoted to productive endeavors.Collection: Self
We live in an age in which the fundamental principles to which we subscribe - liberty, equality and justice for all - are encountering extraordinary challenges, ... But it is also an age in which we can join hands with others who hold to those principles and face similar challenges.Collection: Justice For All
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.Collection: Leadership
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.Collection: People
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.Collection: Rights
So now the perception is, yes, women are here to stay. And when I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]? And I say when there are nine, people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.Collection: Men
Work for the things that you care about.Collection: Care
I didn't change the Constitution; the equality principle was there from the start. I just was an advocate for seeing its full realization.Collection: Principles
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. And if you’re a boy, and you like teaching, you like nursing, you would like to have a doll, that’s OK too. That notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be, and not be held back by artificial barriers—manmade barriers, certainly not heaven sent.Collection: Girl
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.Collection: Writing
I think our system is being polluted by money.Collection: Thinking
My dissenting opinions, like my briefs, are intended to persuade. And sometimes one must be forceful about saying how wrong the Court's decision is.Collection: Decision
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.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Caring
If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are.Collection: Gave Up
A prime part of the history of our Constitution is the story of the extension of constitutional rights to people once ignored or excluded.Collection: Rights
Whatever community organization, whether it's a women's organization, or fighting for racial justice ... you will get satisfaction out of doing something to give back to the community that you never get in any other way.Collection: Fighting
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.Collection: Thinking
There is a Constitutional right to prostitution.Collection: Prostitution
If you ask judges, do you always agree on everything? Of course not, we divide just as you do. Why aren't you transparent about it? Because the people would begin to think that the law is not stable, the law is unclear. And that would not give them much faith in the law.Collection: Thinking