Top 15 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes

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.

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

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

I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.

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.

When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

Rabbi Alfred Bettleheim once said: “Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking.

I don’t say women’s rights — I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.

The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.

You can disagree without being disagreeable.

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.

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

My mother was very strong about my doing well in school and living up to my potential. Two things were important to her and she repeated them endlessly. One was to ‘be a lady,’ and that meant conduct yourself civilly, don’t let emotions like anger or envy get in your way. And the other was to be independent, which was an unusual message for mothers of that time to be giving their daughters.

Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?