Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days in Judaism marking the Jewish new year. Her passing on this day is fitting considering one of the holiday’s themes suggests that very righteous people would die at the very end of the year because they were needed until the very end. The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned her “Notorious RBG.” nickname through decades of fighting for equality, on the bench and off, as noted by CNN. She was first a trailblazing attorney for women’s rights, and then the second woman appointed to the high court. She had good humor about her late-in-life fame, like her rapper-inspired moniker. While her legacy can’t be summed up in one blog post or through a series of quotes, here are some of the most powerful, iconic and inspirational quotes from the legendary RBG.
“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.”
“People ask me sometimes… ‘When will there be enough women on the court?’ And my answer is: ‘When there are nine.’”
“Feminism [is the] notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents and not be held back by manmade barriers.”
“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
“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.”
“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.”
