Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the challenges and rejections one can face despite achieving a significant milestone like a law degree.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's quote reflects on her personal experience of being unable to find employment in a law firm in New York City despite having earned her law degree. It underscores the real-world struggles many individuals encounter when entering competitive fields, particularly those faced by women and minorities, and illustrates the importance of resilience and persistence in the face of adversity.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire students facing job market challenges.
If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don't say, 'You don't know how to use the English language,' or 'How could you make that argument?' It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.
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.
The worst times were the years I was alone. The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.
A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.
My resume showed membership on both the Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews, a credit impressive abroad where it was not generally known that Law Reviews were student-operated publications.
I certainly respect the belief of the Hobby Lobby owners. On the other hand, they have no constitutional right to foist that belief on the hundreds and hundreds of women who work for them who don't share that belief.
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; and he that dares not reason is a slave.
We use work to numb out. We can't turn off our machines because we're afraid we're going to miss something.
The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people.
You don't need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?'
Some people get into this business and they're so afraid to lose anything. They try to protect their position like clinging to a beachhead. These actors end up making really safe choices. I never wanted to go that route. If I go down, I'm going down swinging.
We learn humility through accepting humiliations cheerfully.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.