Sonia Sotomayor
Don't mistake politeness for lack of strength.Collection: Mistake
Until we reach equality in education, we can't reach equality in the larger society.Collection: Women
Through reading, I escaped the bad parts of my life in the South Bronx. And, through books, I got to travel the world and the universe. It, to me, was a passport out of my childhood and it remains a way - through the power of words - to change the world.Collection: Book
The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.Collection: Eye
There are no bystanders in life [...] Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.Collection: Bystanders
You can't dream unless you know what the possibilities are.Collection: Dream
Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences...our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.Collection: Differences
As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society.Collection: Wish
A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.Collection: Inspiring
I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence.Collection: Children
In every position that I've been in, there have been naysayers who don't believe I'm qualified or who don't believe I can do the work. And I feel a special responsibility to prove them wrong.Collection: Believe
Sometimes, even if there was no useful advice to give, I saw that listening still helped.Collection: Giving
The challenges I have faced - among them material poverty, chronic illness, and being raised by a single mother - are not uncommon, but neither have they kept me from uncommon achievements.Collection: Mother
You always wonder whether the attacks on my capabilities came from an honest evaluation of my accomplishments or from stereotypical presumptions that we, people of color, just can't do it, for some reason. This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.Collection: Color
A role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, "Yes, someone like me can do this."Collection: Inspiration
Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.Collection: Fun
To me, lawyering is the height of service - and being involved in this profession is a gift.Collection: Height
It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different. Now I understand that I've gotten to enjoy things that others have not, whether it's the laughter, the poetry of my Spanish language - I love Spanish poetry, because my grandmother loved it - our food, our music. Everything about my culture has given me enormous education and joy.Collection: Laughter
You make your life choices understanding that you might and do have to work harder to prove yourself.Collection: Hard Work
The dynamism of any diverse community depends not only on the diversity itself but on promoting a sense of belonging among those who formerly would have been considered and felt themselves outsiders.Collection: Diversity
I have always been actively involved in my community, belonging to organizations that promote the interests of Latinos. But I also know that the issues we confront are the same issues, in many respects, as the larger community. So what we do helps not just us but everybody.Collection: Community
Every lawyer, no matter whom they represent, is trying to help someone, whether it's a person, a corporation, a government entity, or a small or big business. To me, lawyering is the height of service - and being involved in this profession is a gift.Collection: Trying
Don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.Collection: Teacher
I've spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me.Collection: Challenges
There are no bystanders in this life.Collection: Life
It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.Collection: Growing Up
If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what’s important to them.Collection: Children
I come to every case with an open mind. Every case is new to me.Collection: Mind
. . . But experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is instirring within us the will to aspire. That will, wherever it finally leads, does at least move you forward. And after a time you may recognize That the proper measure of success is not how much you've closed the distance to some far-off goal but the quality of what you've done today.Collection: Dream
Although wisdom is built on life experiences, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.Collection: Years
The President [Barack Obama] had suggested that I not watch the news during the confirmation process. I assiduously followed his advice.Collection: Advice
Without question, so many people, throughout my life, never think of Puerto Rico as part of the United States. Many people have no idea what the relationship is between Puerto Rico and the United States. And certainly, I have been asked if we are citizens.Collection: Thinking
I don't have a professional aspiration. But I do have a personal one: I want to continue growing as a person. I want to reach out more to people, learn more from them. Ultimately, I would like to be a great justice that people remember with respect and fondness.Collection: People
Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don't seek out that kind of success. And others do.Collection: People
Outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a state using sexual orientation as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits or imposing burdens on them? Is there any other rational decision-making that the government could make? Denying them a job, not granting them benefits of some sort, any other decision?Collection: Jobs
I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine someone else's point of view.Collection: Views
The idea of a commonwealth relationship is alien to most people but I think that's true generally.Collection: Thinking
There's a great variety of people in Washington, but I think because of the great concentration of people in New York, that variety is more visible. You walk the streets and there are people of every color, shape and size, ethnic background, religion, it doesn't matter. It's always present.Collection: New York
I had many reasons for writing this book but among them was the hope that every Latino child and adult would find something familiar in it. And my hope is that when they finish reading the book, that they will come away with a renewed sense of pride in our culture and in who we are. We get a lot of strength from that [culture and identity] and we should be proud of it.Collection: Children
I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there.Collection: Thinking
For as long as I can remember, I have been inspired by the achievement of our founding fathers. They set forth principles that have endured for than more two centuries. Those principles are as meaningful and relevant in each generation as the generation before. It would be a profound privilege for me to play a role in applying those principles to the questions and controversies we face today.Collection: Meaningful
With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that - there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects.Collection: Motivation
I don't view prosecutors and attorneys as natural enemies. ... Though their roles are oppositional, the two simply have different roles to play in pursuit of the larger purpose, realizing the rule of law. ... This is not to deny that the will to win drives those efforts. ... Rather, it is simply to insist that ultimately, neither the accused nor society is served unless the integrity of the system is set above the expedient purposes of either side.Collection: Integrity
as for the possibility of 'having it all,' career and family with no sacrifice to either, that is a myth we would do well to abandon, together with the pernicious notion that a woman who chooses one of the other is somehow deficient.Collection: Sacrifice
I visit the island [Puerto Rico] as often as I humanly can. And I visit with community as frequently as possible, given the demands on me. I meet with kids. I meet with adults. I try to spend time and to listen to people talk about their lives.Collection: Kids
I was aware that my nomination was drawing a lot of attention, particularly in the Latino world, not just in Puerto Rico. It was touching.Collection: Drawing
This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.Collection: African American
The best I could say about third grade was that it was a more or less continuous state of dread.Collection: Education
People in some situations act worse than animals. You can't be a judge if you try to be a robot. Because then you're not going to be able to look at both sides, and hear both sides. At the same time, if you're being ruled by emotion, then you're not being fair and impartial.Collection: Animal