Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Some kinds of government regulation of private consensual homosexual behavior may face substantial constitutional challenge.
The thing that bothered me when I was in college was that I saw myself rejecting the way of life that got me to where I was.
When I call myself an affirmative action baby, I'm talking about the essence of what affirmative action was when it started.
Society's mores have changed, and what used to be thought not to be cruel and unusual now is thought to be cruel and unusual.
I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.
My rule was I will not answer a question that attempts to project how I will rule in a case that might come before the court.
I think some of my colleagues' spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.
I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine someone else's point of view.
Sometimes it gets boring. No justice is supposed to say that. But, you know, there's drudgery in every job you're going to do.
It's a long, uphill fight to get back to original orthodoxy. We have two 'originalists' on the Supreme Court. That's something.
If I were a black liberal, I would be hailed, I guess. But I'm not. I mean, I think for myself. I want to make my own decisions.
I've probably given more speeches, been on TV more than any other member of the Court - or almost any other member of the Court.
I think Mozart's operas 'The Marriage of Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni' are the two most perfect ever written. The music is magical.
The Constitution needs allegiance and loyalty and renewal and understanding with each generation, or else it's not going to last.
When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868, when the 14th Amendment was adopted?
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.
I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations... They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.
It's not simply to say, 'My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way,' but the greatest dissents do become court opinions.
When I entered college, I thought that I wanted to be a lawyer, but by the time I was set to graduate, I was not too sure of that.
I think that the day a justice forgets that each decision comes at a cost to someone, then I think you start losing your humanity.
One can be sophisticated and believe in God. Reason and intellect are not to be laid aside where matters of religion are concerned.
Originalism says that when you consult the text, you give it the meaning it had when it was adopted, not some later modern meaning.
I have no regrets. I don't believe in looking back. What I am proudest of? Working really hard... and achieving as much as I could.
And what my constitutional values are are wholly irrelevant to the job, and so neither you nor anyone else will know what they are.
Members of the legislature, people who have run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed
When you come from a background like mine, where you're entering worlds that are so different than your own, you have to be afraid.
This is an execution, not surgery. Where does that come from, that you must find the method of execution that causes the least pain?
My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn't have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.
Part of me wanted to get a graduate degree in political science. Had I done that, I suppose I would have become a college professor.
If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king.
A judge should be evaluated by whether he faithfully upholds his oath to God, not to the people, to the state or to the Constitution.
The White House said today that Judge Clarence Thomas, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, had smoked marijuana while in college.
I think being a Catholic made me a better person. It taught me how to choose good over evil, and how to be a more caring human being.
The first case I sat on... was Citizens United. Talk about being thrown in. Needless to say, if I was scared before, I was terrified.
Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't.
But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of our cities.
Being a good person begins with being a wise person. Then, when you follow your conscience, will you be headed in the right direction.
My grandfather could barely read. My grandmother had a sixth-grade education. They were people who were industrious. They were frugal.
Sometimes it is easy... to enhance your prestige by not exercising your responsibility, but that's not been the tradition of the court.
In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it's not perfect, that's okay, there are a lot more coming along.
There exists in some parts of the world sanctimonious criticism of America's death penalty, as somehow unworthy of a civilized society.
I love being around people who work with their hands, who do the hard things to keep our country going. They're just my kind of people.
My biographers... would like to have my time at the court almost complete before they finish the book. We decided... to flip the order.
I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences.
It would seem that some black people want to say that when you, as a black, become successful, you cease to be black. That's ridiculous.
In the '50s, too many women, even though they were very smart, they tried to make the man feel that he was brainier. It was a sad thing.
Feminism... I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, 'Free to be You and Me.'
The President [Barack Obama] had suggested that I not watch the news during the confirmation process. I assiduously followed his advice.
I had many reasons for writing memoir but among them was the hope that every Latino child and adult would find something familiar in it.
Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land,' in most instances they're not even law.