What I’ve Learned

Stephen Breyer - Supreme Court justice, retired; 87; Cambridge, Massachusetts

- Interview by Charles P. Pierce

Stephen Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1994. He retired in 2022 after twenty-eight years on the bench. He's now a professor at Harvard Law School.

MY FATHER’S FIRST PIECE OF advice was, Stay on the payroll.

THE SECOND WAS THIS: When you have a job, do it the best you can. If you do your job well, someone might notice, and you get a more important job. But maybe nobody will notice, and at least you will have done that job well.

WHEN MY FATHER DIED, he had $5,000. He said, “That’s enough.”

I LEARNED FROM PRESIDENT CLINTON, at the time when he was thinking of appointing me to the Supreme Court, that “the applause dies away faster than you think. Once that dies away, you better like the job.”

YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO know more than 5 percent of what you should know. So don’t do something weird. Don’t be a trapeze artist unless you’re good at it. Choose the best you can. It’s like being married. You choose, and then your life unwraps itself around what you chose.

MY WIFE AND I have a good sense of humor. I say, Divorce? The word divorce has never appeared. Murder? Yes.