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80+ (TOP) RBG Quotes | Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made history, by becoming the first female Supreme Court Justice. To many people, she is a feminist icon and an inspiration.

This article will introduce you to some of her most inspirational quotes. That will help you to bring motivation.

If you want to be inspired by one of the best legal minds of our time, then check out this list of RBG Quotes.

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RBG Quotes

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a powerful woman in a powerful position in a powerful nation.

Her legal opinions have had an immense impact on the American justice system, and her rulings have changed society by opening the pathway to wider opportunities for women.

  • “Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”
  • “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
  • “No one who is in business for profit can foist his or her beliefs on a workforce that includes many people who do not share those beliefs.”
  • “My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.”
RBG Quotes
  • “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”
  • “So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”

Some of my favorite opinions are dissenting opinions. I will not live to see what becomes of them, but I remain hopeful.

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  • “When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.”
  • “You can’t have it all, all at once. Who — man or woman — has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough.”
  • “You can’t have it all, all at once.”
RBG Quotes
  • My dissenting opinions, like my briefs, are meant to persuade. And sometimes one must be forceful about saying how wrong the Court is.”
  • “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.”

“A gender line…helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”

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  • The words of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause—’nor shall any state deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.’ Well that word, ‘any person,’ covers women as well as men. And the Supreme Court woke up to that reality in 1971.”
  • I ask no favor for my s*x. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
  • “In the course of a marriage, one accommodates the other.”
  • “I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.”
RBG Quotes
  • Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?”
  • “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.”
  • “In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Inspirational Quotes

The following is an article that focuses on the inspirational quotes by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was a famous American lawyer and legal theorist.

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  • Reliance on overbroad generalizations…estimates about the way most men or most women are, will not suffice to deny opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.”
  • “I don’t say women’s rights—I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.”
  • “Just think how you would like the women in your family to be treated, particularly your daughters. And when you see men behaving in ways they should not, you should tell them this is improper behavior.”
  • Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Inspirational Quotes
  • don’t say women’s rights—I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.”
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  • “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
  • “If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.”
  • The greatest statement of equality is in the Declaration of Independence, written by a slaveholder.”

Related- Hellen Keller Quotes»


  • Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.
  • “If you’re a boy, and you like teaching, you like nursing, you would like to have a doll, that’s okay… we should each be free to develop our own talents, whatever they may be and not be held back by artificial barriers.”
  • “We care about this institution more than our individual egos and we are all devoted to keeping the Supreme Court in the place that it is, as a co-equal third branch of government and I think a model for the world in the collegiality and independence of judges.”
  • You can disagree without being disagreeable.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Inspirational Quotes
  • Others noted the irony of the ACLU making the change while claiming to be honouring Ginsburg’s memory.
  • “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.
  • “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.
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  • “I – try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.”
  • Award-winning reporter Kim Willsher also pointed out that it is “dishonest and misleading” to change someone’s words “especially when someone is no longer around to approve the change”.

RBG Quotes Feminism

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a well known feminist and the second female Justice at the Supreme Court. Here are some most collected RBG Quotes on Feminism.

  • 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.
  • Others noted the irony of the ACLU making the change while claiming to be honouring Ginsburg’s memory.
  • Don’t be distracted by emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zap energy and waste time.
  • Award-winning reporter Kim Willsher also pointed out that it is “dishonest and misleading” to change someone’s words “especially when someone is no longer around to approve the change”.
  • “So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
  • “A gender line … helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”
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RBG Quotes Feminism
  • “She would turn in her grave to see you erasing the women whose oppression she fought all her Life,” someone else insisted.
  • “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.”

Related- Equality Quotes»


  • Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.
  • “You’re literally erasing her as you write this. Stop,” @UrlNat tweeted in reply to the group, a sentiment shared by Greg Scott, senior vice president of communications at Alliance Defending Freedom.
  • “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.”
  • The tribute quickly backfired — with many insisting Ginsburg herself would have been “horrified”.
  • The basic thing is that the government has no business making that choice for a woman.
RBG Quotes Feminism
  • “We should not be held back from pursuing our full talents, from contributing what we could contribute to the society, because we fit into a certain mold ― because we belong to a group that historically has been the object of discrimination.”
  • “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.
  • I’m going to tell you the secret of a happy marriage: It helps sometimes to be a little deaf.” (advice from RBG’s mother-in-law)… “Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it is best to be a little hard of.
  • “When the government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices,” the ACLU posted, again hiding “her” and “she”.
  • Every now and then it helps to be a little deaf…That advice has stood me in good stead. Not simply in dealing with my marriage, but in dealing with my colleagues.”
  • The pedestal upon which women have been placed has all too often, upon closer inspection, been revealed as a cage.”

RBG Quotes About Women

You will find several RBG Quotes About Women which dedicate women empowerment.

  • “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person’s] life, to [their] wellbeing and dignity,” the altered quote read, hiding Ginsburg’s original use of “woman” and “her”.
  • “I tell law students… if you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill—very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.”
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  • Generally, change in our society is incremental, I think. Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.
  • The ACLU then posted one of Ginsburg’s famous quotes, but altered five sections to make women “people” and all pronouns “they” or “their”.
  • The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.
RBG Quotes About Women
  • 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.”
  • “I just try to do the good job that I have to the best of my ability and I really don’t think about whether I’m inspirational. I just do the best I can.
  • Ginsburg felt her work kept her going. She was known to review briefs from her hospital bed. “The work is really what saved me, because I had to concentrate on reading the briefs, doing a draft of an opinion, and I knew it had to get done. So I had to get past whatever my aches and pains were just to do the job.”

Related- Women Empowerment Quotes»


  • “So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
  • “The side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they’re fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change.”
  • “I just try to do the good job that I have to the best of my ability and I really don’t think about whether I’m inspirational. I just do the best I can.
  • She recalled a headline in USA Today that called her “Rude Ruth” after she mistakenly interrupted justice Sandra Day O’Connor following an oral argument. Ginsburg said that one op-ed writer tried to explain the incident by characterizing her as a “fast-talking Jew from New York” and O’Connor as a “laid back girl of the golden west,” even though Ginsburg spoke far more slowly.
  • Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.
RBG Quotes About Women
  • “People ask me sometimes… ‘When will there be enough women on the court?’ And my answer is: ‘When there are nine.’
  • Just as buildings in California have a greater need to be earthquake proofed, places, where there is greater racial polarization in voting, have a greater need for prophylactic measures to prevent purposeful race discrimination.
  • Asked to give “strategic advice” to women accused of being “shrill” or having an “irritating” voice at an event at the 92Y in New York City, Ginsburg’s answer was swift and blunt: “You should speak in your own voice.”
  • 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.”
  • “Feminism [is the] notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents and not be held back by manmade barriers.”

Final Words

Right now, not to be too politically driven, but there is a lot of conversation around the Women’s Rights movement. So, if you’re looking for some RBG quotes about women, I’ve got you covered through the above article.

I hope you learn a lot of things about women’s rights from here. If you have really learnt something from here then do share this post to your loving ones.

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