Quotes from Sandra Day O'Connor

I need to retire from retirement.

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

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.

I'm not on the court anymore, so no use looking for my philosophy. If somebody's waiting for that, they can wait for another justice.

The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender

I don't know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job.

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

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.

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.

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.

Half the states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school. Half.

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.

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.

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.

The fact is, we are a nine-member court that sits on cases.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.

We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.

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.