Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s day job certainly keeps her busy, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t occasionally moonlight as an advice columnist for the New York Times.
In an op-ed titled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice for Living,” Ginsburg walks readers through her greatest life lessons—from her mother’s early encouragement of reading to her decision to juggle law school and child rearing as a young woman.
The best advice she ever received, however, was from her mother-in-law:
Another often-asked question when I speak in public: “Do you have some good advice you might share with us?” Yes, I do. It comes from my savvy mother-in-law, advice she gave me on my wedding day. “In every good marriage,” she counseled, “it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.” I have followed that advice assiduously, and not only at home through 56 years of a marital partnership nonpareil. I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court. When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.
Explains her friendship with Antonin Scalia!