10 powerful RBG quotes: Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a way with words

'We have made huge strides, but we have not reached nirvana'

In 1993, then Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses in her robe in her office at U.S. District Court in Washington. Earlier, the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her as the 107th justice and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2020, the Supreme Court announced. AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg types while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the lunch session of The Women's Conference in Long Beach, California October 26, 2010. Reuters

This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader's engagement photograph, while a senior at Cornell University in December 1953. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in taking a new family photo with her fellow justices at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017. Reuters

President Barack Obama hugs Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Capitol Hill in Washington, prior to delivering his State of the Union address. From left are, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Obama, Justice Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer. AP

An image of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is projected onto the New York State Civil Supreme Court building in Manhattan after she passed away on September 18, 2020. Reuters

In this image provided by the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children Jane and James off the coast of St. Thomas in 1979. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

In this June 15, 1993, file photo, President Bill Clinton applauds as Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House,after the president announced he would nominate Ginsburg to the Supreme Court. AP

This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin and their daughter Jane in 1958. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2020, the Supreme Court announced. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

In this image provided by the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin Ginsburg, pose for a photo in Fort Sill, Okla., when Martin was serving in the U.S. army at Artillery Village at Fort Sill. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

This image provided by the Supreme Court shows Ruth Bader, age age 15 in 1948, giving a sermon as the camp rabbi at Che-Na-Wah in Minerva. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

This image provided by the Supreme Court, shows Joan Ruth Bader at two-years-old in 1935, at her home in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Nyree McFarlane

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was softly spoken, and her words were thoughtful and held weight.

A stalwart liberal and champion for women's rights on the US Supreme Court since 1993, Ginsburg died on Friday at the age of 87.

She was the second woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, and the first Jewish justice since 1969.

Quote

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

She was an eminently quotable woman, and as is common in 2020, many parts of the world are now collectively mourning her via Instagram stories, sharing the late New Yorker's own words via memes.

Here are 10 moments of wisdom from the trailblazer ...

Some of her last words... 

"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

- NPR reports that this was Ginsburg’s final statement, dictated to her granddaughter Clara Spera from her deathbed.

On how she'd like to be remembered

"As someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has. To do something, as my colleague David Souter would say, 'outside myself'. ‘Cause I’ve gotten much more satisfaction for the things that I’ve done for which I was not paid."

- In a 2015 interview with MSNBC.

On US politics 

"I am optimistic in the long run. A great man once said the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle, it's the pendulum, and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it will go back."

- Speaking to the BBC in 2017

Quoting another pioneering woman

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

- Ginsburg says this in 2018 Netflix documentary 'RBG', and while many attribute it to her because of the trailer, she is actually quoting Sarah Grimke. A force for reform in the US in the 19th century, Grimke was one of the first female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

On influence and nuance

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

- Talking at Harvard Law School in 2015. This was her answer when asked what advice she would give women at the time.

On her and her mother 

"What's the difference between a bookkeeper in New York's garment district, which my mother was, and a supreme court justice? The difference is one generation."

- Talking at Amherst College in 2019, where she also said to the crowd, "I would advise more listening, and less talking".

On not getting a single offer from a New York law firm after graduating 

"I had three strikes against me, one I was Jewish, two I was a woman, but the killer was I was the mother of a four-year-old child."

- Speaking to CBS in 2016 about not getting any job offers despite graduating first in her class at Columbia Law School.

On unconscious bias

"We have made huge strides ... but we have not reached nirvana. There's still rampant discrimination on the basis of race, gender. It's true that most of the explicit classifications – men are treated this way, women that way – are gone from the law books. But what remains is what has been called unconscious bias. One excellent example of that is the symphony orchestra. In my growing up years I never saw a woman in a symphony orchestra, except perhaps a harp player.

"Howard Taubman (1907-1996), who was the very able critic for The New York Times said, 'blindfold me and I can tell you if it's a woman playing the piano or a man'. Someone decided to put him to the test. He was all mixed up. Then, someone got the even brighter idea. 'Let's drop a curtain between the people who are auditioning for membership in the orchestra and the judges, so they won't see a woman's or a man's face'. That simple device, a dropped curtain, led to an almost overnight change in the composition of symphony orchestras. Unfortunately we can't duplicate the dropped curtain in every field of human endeavour."

- Also talking at Amherst College in 2019, see that full discussion here:

On parenting

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

- Speaking to The Record (New York Bar Association) in 2012

On the power of 'tuning out'

A candle sits as people gather outside of the U.S. Supreme Court following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Reuters

"Another often-asked question when I speak in public: 'Do you have some good advice you might share with us?' Yes, I do. It comes from my savvy mother-in-law, advice she gave me on my wedding day. 'In every good marriage,' she counseled, 'it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.'

"I have followed that advice assiduously, and not only at home through 56 years of a marital partnership nonpareil. I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court of the United States. When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade."

- From her 2016 book 'My Own Words'

Updated: September 20, 2020, 7:36 AM