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Daily Inspiration Quote by Catherine Crier

"I loved being a judge, and sometimes I miss the power of the gavel, but this is a lot more fun"

About this Quote

There is a sly confession tucked inside Catherine Crier's breezy nostalgia: power is intoxicating, but it is also, in her telling, a little dull. "The power of the gavel" is courtroom authority distilled into a prop, a symbol that makes hierarchy feel tangible. By admitting she sometimes misses it, Crier punctures the saintly myth that people leave power only out of principle. She is honest about the ego-gratification built into judging: the room rises, the record obeys, the decision lands.

Then she pivots: "but this is a lot more fun". The line works because it demotes power from moral achievement to lifestyle choice. "Fun" is the radical word here; it implies freedom from the procedural grind and the heavy loneliness of being the final decider. It also hints at a new kind of influence, the softer, louder power of media. A judge's authority is bounded by jurisdiction and appeal; a journalist's reach is elastic, public, and often more culturally consequential. Crier frames the swap as pleasure, but the subtext is autonomy: less restraint, more voice, fewer robes and rituals.

Context matters. Crier's career sits at the junction where legal institutions and television-era journalism collide, when "law-and-order" became entertainment and courtrooms became content. The quote reads like a knowing wink at that ecosystem: she traded the gavel's formal command for the microphone's informal sway, and she wants you to notice that the second can feel lighter while hitting harder.

Quote Details

TopicCareer
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Crier, Catherine. (2026, January 17). I loved being a judge, and sometimes I miss the power of the gavel, but this is a lot more fun. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-being-a-judge-and-sometimes-i-miss-the-44577/

Chicago Style
Crier, Catherine. "I loved being a judge, and sometimes I miss the power of the gavel, but this is a lot more fun." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-being-a-judge-and-sometimes-i-miss-the-44577/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I loved being a judge, and sometimes I miss the power of the gavel, but this is a lot more fun." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-being-a-judge-and-sometimes-i-miss-the-44577/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.

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I Loved Being a Judge, But This Is More Fun
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About the Author

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Catherine Crier (born November 8, 1954) is a Journalist from USA.

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