National
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court Justice who died Friday at age 87, was a favorite for artists around the world to portray. She was a pop culture icon, often illustrated with a crown on her head or wearing her dissent collar and matching earrings. Ginsburg was an avid consumer of opera and modern art, and her words spoke to many artists. Here are several of her most famous quotes, paired with modern portraits.
Karyn Jimenez-Elliott (Portsmouth, R.I.)
“Don’t be distracted by emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zap energy and waste time.”
Craig & Karl (New York and London)
“You can’t have it all, all at once.”
Agata Nowicka (Warsaw)
“The worst times were the years I was alone. The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.”
Rebecca Williams (Washington, D.C.)
“I ... try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.”
Helen Green (West Midlands, U.K.)
“It is not women’s liberation, it is women’s and men’s liberation.”
Michelle Vella (Toronto)
“If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.”
Sol Cotti (Buenos Aires)
“Feminism [is the] notion that we should each be free to develop our own talents and not be held back by manmade barriers.”
Queenbe Monyei (Minneapolis)
“People ask me sometimes, when — when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine.”
Juliet Gilden (Baltimore)
“If I had any talent in the world, any talent that God could give me, I would be a great diva.”
Gemma Correll (Norwich, U.K.)
“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.”
Judith Rudd (Montreal)
“Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?”
Nigel Buchanan (New Zealand)
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Alessandra Olanow (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
Maria Picassó i Piquer (Barcelona)
“So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.”
Hanna Barczyk (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
“A gender line ... helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”
My Tien Pham (Oklahoma City)
“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
Desiree Kelly (Detroit)
“When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.”