Justice Ginsburg's words look to the future, even after her passing
30 Iconic Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes on Women, Equality and Justice
Updated on Apr. 14, 2025
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made history during her distinguished legal career, but she knew the fight for equality wasn’t quite won. Still, the trailblazing attorney looked to the future throughout her 87 years, and that optimism shines through in the many Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes that remain relevant since her death in 2020.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ginsburg earned her law degree from Columbia University (after transferring from Harvard) as one of very few women in her graduating class. She then became the first female tenured professor at Columbia Law School, co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project and argued cases before the Supreme Court—where she would become the second female justice in history in 1993.
Reader’s Digest compiled the most inspiring Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes that speak to the idealism and dedication she demonstrated throughout her long life. Her words—reflection, advice, feminist ideas and quotes about change and leadership—underscore her legacy and serve as a call to action for future generations to continue her life’s work.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more quotes, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
RBG quotes about being a leader
“And as you pursue your paths in life, leave tracks. Just as others have been way pavers for you, so you should aid those who will follow in your way. Do your part to help move society to the place you would like it to be for the health and well-being of generations following your own.” —Brown University baccalaureate address, 2002
“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” —Harvard University speech, 2015
“[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.” —MSNBC interview, 2015
“When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.” —Concurring opinion to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2012
“You can’t have it all, all at once.” —Interview with Katie Couric, Yahoo! News, 2014
“If you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself.” —Stanford University Rathbun lecture, 2017
“It bothers me when people say to make it to the top of the tree you have to give up a family.” —New Yorker interview, 2013
RBG quotes about women and equality
“I don’t say women’s rights—I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.” —Academy of Achievement interview (compilation), 2010 & 2016
“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.” —American Civil Liberties Union tribute, 2006
“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.” —Conversation with the Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 2001
“People ask me sometimes, when—when do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the [Supreme] Court? And my answer is when there are nine.” —Georgetown Law School interview, 2015
“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.” —Makers interview, 2012
“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.” —New York Times Magazine interview, 2009
“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.” —Bloomberg interview, 2015
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It’s a decision she must make for herself.” —Senate confirmation hearings, 1993
“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 interview, 2020
“I didn’t change the Constitution; the equality principle was there from the start. I just was an advocate for seeing its full realization.” —WNYC interview, 2013
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” —USA Today interview, 2009
“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.” —Makers interview, 2012
“One of the differences about gender discrimination and race discrimination is that race discrimination was immediately perceived as evil, as odious, as wrong, as intolerable. But the response I was getting from the judges before whom I appeared when I first talked about sex-based discrimination … was: ‘What are you talking about? Women are treated ever so much better than men.'” —Senate confirmation hearings, 1993
RBG quotes about dissent and the Supreme Court
“My hope is … we will get back to the way it once was … that kind of collegiality, the good relations, people who liked and respected each other, even though they disagreed on some important questions.” —CBS Sunday Morning interview, 2017
“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.” —National Public Radio interview, 2002
“I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow.” —Interview with Katie Couric, Yahoo! News, 2014
“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 interview, 2014
“Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions. I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful.” —National Public Radio (archived recording), 2020
“You can disagree without being disagreeable.” —Cornell University speech, 2016
RBG quotes about change
“You go on to the next challenge and you give it your all. These important issues are not going to go away.” —Conversation with the Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 2001
“Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.” —New York Times op-ed, 2015
“I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.” —Al Hayat interview, 2012
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” —Senate confirmation hearings, 1993
Additional reporting by Emma Taubenfeld.
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite quotes for more than 100 years. The sayings and quips that appear in the magazine’s “Quotable Quotes” (formerly “Remarkable Remarks”) are curated from interviews and essays originally published in the magazine, reprints from trusted titles and other verified sources. For this piece, Emily Goodman tapped her experience as a senior editor at Reader’s Digest magazine to ensure that all information is accurate. We’ve gone the extra step and had Ambrose Martose, a fact-checker with 20-plus years of experience researching for national publications including National Geographic Adventure and Popular Mechanics, verify that these Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes are attributed correctly and have credible sourcing. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
