Sonia Sotomayor Quotes

Learning how to balance the needs of individuals with the no-less-real needs of an institution was a...

I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine som...

Dressing badly has been a refuge much of my life, a way of compelling others to engage with my mind,...

Many of my classmates have happier memories of Blessed Sacrament, and in time I would find my own sa...

The tatters of old stories are tangled, weathered, muted by long-held silences that succeeded loud f...

... a surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. Page 115

The Latino community anchored me, but I didn't want it to isolate me from the full extent of what Pr...

I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who...

There is indeed something deeply wrong with a person who lacks principles, who has no moral core. Th...

Sonia lives her life fully. If she dies tomorrow, she'll die happy. If she lives the way you want he...

[T]he more critical lesson I learned that day is still one too many kids never figure out: don't be ...

[A]lthough wisdom is built on life experience, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.

In my experience when a friend unloaded about a boyfriend or spouse, the listener soaked up the comp...

[T]he habit of living as if in the shadow of death has remained with me, and I consider that, too, a...

I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Ya...

I accepted what the Sisters taught in religion class: that God is loving, merciful, charitable, forg...

There were no actual villains, just inertia. The administration genuinely wanted more diversity for ...

Seeing my mother get back to her studies was all the proof I needed that a chain of emotion can pers...

I would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support an...

As difficult an environment as the DA's Office could be, I saw no overarching conspiracy against wom...

Many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural backgrou...

I've always believed phone calls from kids must be allowed if mothers are to feel welcome in the wor...

If you held to principle so passionately, so inflexibly, indifferent in the particulars of circumsta...

I couldn’t even tell if I had any sadness of my own, because I was so full of Abuelita’s sadness.

I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they we...

It seems obvious now: the child who spends school days in a fog of semi-comprehension has no way to ...

The differences were plain enough, and yet I saw that they were as nothing compared with what we had...

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not...

If I write a book where all I've ever experienced is success, people won't take a positive lesson fr...

I have had positive experiences with cameras. When I have been asked to join experiments using camer...

We educated, privileged lawyers have a professional and moral duty to represent the underrepresented...

Being a justice. If you love law the way I do... you're given the job of a lifetime... you're permit...

All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people out there with court of appeals...

You know, failure hurts. Any kind of failure stings. If you live in the sting, you will - undoubtedl...

I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordina...

I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and ...

So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren't always happy things happening to me ...

It is our responsibility to explain to the public how an often unpredictable system of justice is on...

As you discover what strength you can draw from your community in this world from which it stands ap...

The dynamism of any diverse community depends not only on the diversity itself but on promoting a se...

The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiv...

I have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.

I am a New Yorker, and 7:00 A.M. is a civilized hour to finish the day, not to start it.

It is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shape...

When everyone at school is speaking one language, and a lot of your classmates' parents also speak i...

Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society.

That tide of insecurity would come in and out over the years, sometimes stranding me for a while but...

...you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. The real value is in stirring...

The challenges I have faced—among them material poverty, chronic illness, and being raised by a sing...