Wit & Attitude Quote by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A Supreme Court justice rarely gets to sound ordinary, so when Ruth Bader Ginsburg reaches for the language of everyday caution, it lands with quiet force. The line performs a careful balancing act: first, a preemptive disclaimer ("It is not like I have gone crazy") that anticipates how quickly a woman in power can be dismissed as irrational. Then, the pivot: prudence over pride. "I just don't want to take any chances" is the voice of someone trained to see how small decisions become big consequences once they enter a system that runs on precedent.

The subtext is pure institutional realism. Courts, unlike dinner parties, don't reward spontaneity. The stakes of being wrong are asymmetric: if you over-prepare, you might look fussy; if you under-prepare, you can’t unring the bell. "You never know what could happen" sounds almost domestic, but it’s also a judge's creed. It acknowledges contingency - the surprise factual wrinkle, the unforeseen procedural trap, the political moment that changes how a case is received. For Ginsburg in particular, it echoes the way her career was built: incremental legal victories, meticulously argued, because the world she worked in punished missteps and romantic heroics.

Contextually, it also reads as a comment on public scrutiny. When your body, schedule, and choices are treated as civic property, risk management becomes a form of self-defense. The genius is that the sentence refuses drama while quietly justifying vigilance: not paranoia, not panic - simply respect for how quickly "could" turns into "did."