Sandra Day O'Connor famous quotes

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads form one to another that creates something.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Teamwork #Kwanzaa #Common Threads

Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Responsibility #Opportunity #Equality

Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Time #Learning #Tasks

Be aware that even before you have reached your ultimate professional destination, if you always strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial impact on the world in which you live.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Inspiring #Graduation #Impact

I think the important thing about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman, but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Inspirational #Thinking #Important

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Life #Kwanzaa #World

Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Conflict #Civility #Manners

I have always thought that while it's wonderful to be the first to do something, you don't want to be the last.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Wonderful

The fact is that knowledge about the Constitution and the Court is not something that is handed down through the gene pool; every generation has to learn it. And I'm not sure the recent generations have done that good a job of learning about it.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Done #Constitution #Pool

I don't know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Jobs #Good Day #Cutting

Young women today often have very little appreciation for the real battles that took place to get women where they are today in this country. I don't know how much history young women today know about those battles.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Appreciation #Real

Despite the encouraging and wonderful gains and the changes for women which have occurred in my lifetime, there is still room to advance and to promote correction of the remaining deficiencies and imbalances.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Imbalance #Rooms #Gains

Apparently a great many people have forgotten that the framers of our Constitution went to such great effort to create an independent judicial branch that would not be subject to retaliation by either the executive branch or the legislative branch because of some decision made by those judges.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Independent #Judging #People

The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Argument #Gender #Court

We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Principles #Needs

How dare you make my life a felony.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Gay #Lgbt #Dare

The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy. The problem comes when healthy criticism is replaced with more destructive intimidation and sanctions.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Judging #Healthy #Democracy

I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don't know how many you're going to be given.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Gratitude #Thinking #Appreciate

As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself - and not just by voting.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Voting #Needs #Citizens

The destiny of the woman must be shaped to a large extent on her own conception of her spiritual imperative and her place in society.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Spiritual #Destiny #Conception

This chance will stand before you only once.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Women #Empowering #Chance

I care very much about women and their progress. I didn’t go march in the streets, but when I was in the Arizona Legislature, one of the things that I did was to examine every single statute in the state of Arizona to pick out the ones that discriminated against women and get them changed.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Progress #Arizona #Care

I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Rights #Talking #Constitution

The courts of this country should not be the places where resolution of disputes begins. They should be the places where the disputes end after alternative methods of resolving disputes have been considered and tried.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Alternatives #Conflict

The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Family #Women #Play

The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Judging #Democracy #Intimidation

I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times have changed. I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. As a judge, it is not my function to develop public policy.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Believe #Law #Times Have Changed

Commitment to the rule of law provides a basic assurance that people can know what to expect whether what they do is popular or unpopular at the time.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Commitment #Law #People

The government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Results #Resources

The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Political #Doe

A moment of silence is not inherently religious.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Religious #Silence #Moments

I wanted to be a cattle rancher when I was young, because it was what I knew and I loved it.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Ranchers #Young #Wanted

Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children's education.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Community #Parent

The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Law #Roles #Judiciary

Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Difficult Questions #Church #Answers

The more education a woman has, the wider the gap between men's and women's earnings for the same work.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Men #Gaps #Earning

We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Generations #Teach

It matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. Thats set out in the Constitution.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Successful #Two #Government

Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Jobs #Lifetime #Values

So how as a nation can we sit around and eat Mexican food, and drink beer and make friends? That's the question. If we can do that on a broader scale, I think we'll come out of it all right.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Beer #Thinking #Mexican

Yes, I will bring the understanding of a woman to the Court, but I doubt that alone will affect my decisions.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Decision #Understanding #Doubt

The really expert riders of horses let the horse know immediately who is in control, but then they guide the horse with loose reins and very seldom use the spurs. So it was with our chief [William Rehnquist]. He guided us with loose reins and used the spurs only rarely to get us up to speed with our work.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Leadership #Horse #Women

It's hard to have little children and a job and career at the same time. There is no time left for you as a woman.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Jobs #Children #Careers

If I stumbled badly in doing the job, I think it would have made life more difficult for women, and that was a great concern of mine and still is.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Jobs #Thinking #Great Day

I had become increasingly concerned in recent years about the lack of civics education in our nation's schools. In recent years, the schools have stopped teaching it. And it's unfortunate.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Teaching #School #Years

It is a measure of the framers' fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Majority #Politics #Might

The prima facie evidence provision in this case ignores all of the contextual factors that are necessary to decide whether a particular cross burning is intended to intimidate. The First Amendment does not permit such a shortcut.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Doe #Burning

If parents instill a sense of civic-mindedness - and there is no better way to do that than by example - their children will probably follow.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Parent #Example

Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Doubt #Liberty #Jurisprudence

If a State refused to let religious groups use facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Christian #Religious #Groups

The whole idea of a public education was to train young people about how our system of government works, so they could be good citizens and be part of it. We're not doing that today.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Ideas #Government #People

I need to retire from retirement.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Retirement #Needs #Retiring

When I went to law school, which after all was back in the dark ages, we never looked beyond our borders for precedents. As a state court judge, it never would have occurred to me to do so, and when I got to the Supreme Court, it was very much the same. We just didn't do it.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#School #Dark #Court Judges

If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#May #Statistics #Death Penalty

The framers of the Constitution were so clear in the federalist papers and elsewhere that they felt an independent judiciary was critical to the success of the nation.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Independent #Paper #Constitution

If you take a position under the Constitution that is against the majority view, you have to explain it well enough that maybe you can persuade some of that majority to agree with you.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Views #Majority #Constitution

I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a resurgence of civic-mindedness in this country. Hopefully the younger generations, which came out in record numbers during the last presidential election, will pass their enthusiasm on to their children.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Children #Thinking

Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Family #Nature #Women

In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Leadership #Eye #Race

Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Leadership #Sports #Procrastination

It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Religious #Thoughtful #Liberty

It is true that many Americans find the Commandments in accord with their personal beliefs. But we do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Firsts #Belief #First Amendment

I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Law #Constitution #Cases

I finally gave up my little law practice and stayed home for about three years. You have to do what you can to keep the family going. But I wanted to get back to work. So I got another babysitter and went to work as an Assistant Attorney General.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Home #Years #Law

Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Borders #Looks

Cyberspace undeniably reflects some form of geography.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Cyberspace #Internet #Geography

You have to answer the question, like it or not. And the questions deserve a valid legal response, even if the response isn't one that will be easily understood. You have an obligation as a member of the court to do what you are bound to do under federal law, even if it isn't an attractive resolution from a public standpoint.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Law #Answers #Resolution

The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Community #Political

I suspect that over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues. [Doing so] may not only enrich our own country's decisions, I think it may create that all important good impression.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Thinking #Issues

Half the states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school. Half.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#School #Government #Half

(W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Religion #Atheism #Firsts

The purpose prong of the Lemon test requires that a government activity have a secular purpose. That requirement is not satisfied, however, by the mere existence of some secular purpose, however dominated by religious purposes... The proper inquiry under the purpose prong of Lemon, I submit, is whether the government intends to convey a message of endorsement or disapproval of religion.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Religious #Government #Atheism

Justice Ginsburg is a very competent justice, and it is a joy to have her on the court, but particularly for me it is a pleasure to have a second woman on the court.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Justice #Joy #Insecurity

I think people know very little, really, about the court, how it works and its history. And both of those things are important in our country, but they're not things that most citizens know much about.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Country #Thinking #People

Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Taken #Party #Influence And Power

My hope is that 10 years from now, after I've been across the street at work for a while, they'll all be glad they gave me that wonderful vote.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Hope #Years #Politics

I'm a judge. It seemed to me that it was critical to try to take action to stem the criticism and help people understand that in the constitutional framework, it's terribly important not to have a system of retaliation against decisions people don't like.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#People #Judging #Decision

A state of war is not a blank check... when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#War #Rights #Citizens

The unhappy persistence of both the practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination ...is an unfortunate reality...and the government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Persistence #Reality #Government

You have citizens who don't understand how government works and they're kind of soured on it. All they do is criticize. They have no idea that they can make things happen.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Government #Ideas #Citizens

It is true that as you have children, there are a good many months when you don't want to be working full-time. I agree that that's an issue.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Issues #Want

What the framers of the Constitution tried to achieve when they wrote that Constitution back in the 1700s was an independent federal judiciary. They wanted federal judges to be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and to serve for good behavior.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Independent #Judging #Advice

My concerns through the years increased about the concerns of an independent judiciary and how we maintain it. Certainly in the states. I'm a product of state government in my own state of Arizona. And it seemed to me that the popular election of judges was creating major problems in many states, and we had improved the system in Arizona. And I thought the nation ought to at least rethink how we select our nation's trial judges in the states.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Independent #Creating #Government

We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Years #Today #Use

My concern was whether I could do the job of a justice well enough to convince the nation that my appointment was the right move.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Jobs #Moving #Justice

In my work a good library is essential. It enables me to learn the background and previous discussions of the various issues I am called upon to decide. It provides the stability and continuity for the rule of law.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Issues #Law #Library

A fundamental premise of American democratic theory is that government exists to serve the people. ... Public records are one portal through which the people observe their government, ensuring its accountability, integrity, and equity while minimizing sovereign mischief and malfeasance
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Integrity #Government #People

What was a problem was the excessive amount of media attention to the appointment of the first woman and everything she did. Everywhere that Sandra went, the press was sure to go. And that got tiresome; it was stressful.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Media #Attention #Firsts

There was no hostility at the court when I arrived.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Court #Hostility

The abortion cases produced an enormous amount of mail to my chambers, vastly more than to the other chambers, I am sure. I sometimes thought there wasn't a woman in the United States who didn't write me a letter on one side or the other of that issue.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Writing #Issues #Abortion

And I went off to Stanford, I was pretty young and pretty naive. And I had a professor I really loved, who was himself a lawyer.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Lawyer #Professors #Young

Suppose you had a cross burning in a play or a movie... Would that be intimidating?
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Play #Burning #Intimidating

The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but ‘[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.' To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Art #Mean #Ideas

For students, understanding the separate and unique functions of each branch of government can help them understand how different kinds of government officials can help solve different kinds of problems.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Unique #Government #Understanding

Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#History #Amendments #Framers

being a member of the court is a lot like walking through fresh concrete. Do you remember doing that as a child and leaving a footprint and it hardens after you? I'm afraid that's what we do and we look back and we see those opinions we've written and they've sort of hardened after us.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Law #Leaving

I loved my husband very much, and it was heartbreaking to have him develop Alzheimer's disease, and to stand by and watch him decline in his ability to take care of himself.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Husband #Alzheimer's #Heartbreaking

The No Child Left Behind Program was an incentive to the schools to get their kids up to snuff on math and science and reading.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Children #Reading #Kids

The members of the court were just delighted to have a ninth member - male or female. They were all kind and welcoming.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Males #Female #Welcome

Historically, it took a long time before the court took any women law clerks. Finally, it did, but the numbers have never matched very effectively the percentages of law graduates out of graduating classes. We have far more than we ever did before and it's continued to grow, but it isn't a nice match yet.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor

#Nice #Law #Class