Sandra Day O’Connor is a retired attorney and politician who served as the first woman associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman nominated and confirmed. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered the swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the beginning of the Roberts Court. These Sandra Day O’Connor quotes will motivate you.
Best Sandra Day O’Connor 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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “I don’t know that there are any shortcuts to doing a good job.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
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“How dare you make my life a felony.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“This chance will stand before you only once.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “A moment of silence is not inherently religious.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
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“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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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. That’s set out in the Constitution.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
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“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
- “Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children’s education.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “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
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“Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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 Quotes
- “I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
- “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
- “Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “Cyberspace undeniably reflects some form of geography.” ~ Sandra Day O’Connor
- “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
