When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.

If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are.

We should learn ... to do our best for the sake of our communities and for the sake of those for whom we pave the way.

A prime part of the history of our Constitution is the story of the extension of constitutional rights to people once ignored or excluded.

One thing that concerns me is that today's young women don't seem to care that we have a fundamental instrument of government that makes no express statement about the equal citizenship stature of men and women. They know there are no closed doors anymore, and they may take for granted the rights that they have.

Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it is best to be a little hard of hearing — to tune out and not snap back in anger or impatience.

I conceived of myself in large part as a teacher. There wasn't a great understanding of gender discrimination. People knew that race discrimination was an odious thing, but there were many who thought that all the gender-based differentials in the law operated benignly in women's favor. So my objective was to take the Court step by step to the realization, in Justice Brennan's words, that the pedestal on which some thought women were standing all too often turned out to be a cage.