Sandra Day O’Connor quotes: the attorney turned politician’s most popular quotes.
“It is the individual who can and does make a difference even in this increasingly populous, complex world of ours. The individual can make things happen.”
“It is the individual who has acted or tried to act who will not only force a decision but also have a hand in shaping it.”
“Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values.”
“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.”
“I don’t know that there are any shortcuts to doing a good job.”
“No one experience is more valuable than another. A well written compelling story makes the best personal statement.”
“Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.”
“I have always thought that while it’s wonderful to be the first to do something, you don’t want to be the last.”
“You have a job to do and it doesn’t mean succumbing to somebody’s emotional pitch made out on the sidewalk.”
“The key to making things happen is bringing people with different perspectives together to get to know and understand one another.”
“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.”
“Play and laughter are essential elements of leadership. They recharge and rejuvenate so that you could keep showing up to do the hard work with energy and passion. Play is something that some leaders struggle with, but it showed me how important it is.”
“Well, it’s a little odd, the path I took, because when I was young, I wanted to be a cattle rancher. That was what I knew and that was what I liked.”
“A law professor changed my life. Each Sunday he invited students into his home to discuss the meaning of life, making passionate arguments that each individual had a civic duty to serve his or her community. I was struck. I’d spent my life as a self-reliant cowgirl, miles from the closest town. Now, I felt an obligation to serve. He was the most inspiring teacher I ever had.”
“After graduating, I applied to Stanford Law School and was admitted, just one of four women in my class. I had no understanding then about the almost total lack of opportunities for women in the legal profession. Had I realized how hard it would be to get a job as a woman lawyer, I would have chosen another path.”
“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.”
“I needed to establish myself as a jurist. Eternally a ranch girl, I wanted solutions that really worked and had little patience for esoteric theory that had no grounding in reality.”
“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.”
“As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself—and not just by voting.”
“We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.”
“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. The power I exert on the court depends on the power of my arguments, not on my gender.”
“I’ve always said that at the end of the day, on a legal issue, I think a wise old woman and a wise old man are going to reach the same conclusion.”
“If you think you’ve been helpful, and then it’s dismantled, you think, ‘Oh, dear.’ But life goes on. It’s not always positive.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The more education a woman has, the wider the gap between men’s and women’s earnings for the same work.”
“I think women, like men, should pursue their talents and interests. I believe that it is only a matter of time before the structural barriers to women or minorities are effectively dismantled.”
“We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens.”
“Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children’s education.”
“The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.”
“Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Life goes on. I had a good life, and the reason it was a good life is because I stayed busy doing the things that mattered to me. If I stopped doing that, I think my whole life would disintegrate. I want to feel like, to the extent that I’m able to, I can still make a difference.”
“I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don’t know how many you’re going to be given.”
“So give freely of yourself always to your family, your friends, your community, and your country. The world will pay you back many times over.”
