Quotes by Sandra Day O'Connor

About Sandra Day O'Connor:

Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan until her retirement in 2006. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Court.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

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

It was better for me when I was joined at the court by a second woman. When I was there alone, there was too much media focus on the one woman, and the minute we got another woman, that changed.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Most high courts in other nations do not have discretion, such as we enjoy, in selecting the cases that the high court reviews. Our court is virtually alone in the amount of discretion it has.

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

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

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

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

I need to retire from retirement.

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

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

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 sa...

Sandra Day O'Connor

Occasionally we have to interpret an international treaty - one, perhaps, affecting airlines and liability for injury to passengers or damage to goods. Then, of course, we have to look to the precedents of other member nations in resolving issues.

Sandra Day O'Connor

My sense is that jurists from other nations around the world understand that our court occupies a very special place in the American system, and that the court is rather well regarded in comparison, perhaps, to their own.

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

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

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.

Sandra Day O'Connor

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

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

A moment of silence is not inherently religious.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Author Bio

  • NameSandra Day O'Connor
  • DescriptionFormer Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  • BornMarch 26, 1930
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJudge; Lawyer; Politician
  • AwardsPresidential Medal Of Freedom; Philadelphia Liberty Medal; Brandeis Medal; National Women's Hall Of Fame