QuoteProject
People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Legacy and history cannot be erased or changed instantaneously; awareness of this is essential.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg highlights the misconception that one can easily dismiss or alter the impacts of historical legacies. Acknowledging the weight of the past is crucial in understanding our present circumstances and shaping our future actions.

Themes

LegacyHistoryAwarenessTruthChange

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about social justice, one could reference this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing historical struggles.

More from Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
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.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
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.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
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.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
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.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead

Similar quotes

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself - limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.
Albert CamusRead
It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, - superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
Criticism of the Middle East should not be directed only at Saudi Arabia. Human rights abuses are happening throughout the Arab world.
Jamal KhashoggiRead
Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.
William J. BrennanRead
If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such, the path of error is the path of truth.
Hans ReichenbachRead
There's a terror in knowing what the world is about
David BowieRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.