“To me, lawyering is the height of service – and being involved in this profession is a gift.”

The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.

I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there.

I was a keen observer and listener. I picked up on clues. I figured things out logically, and I enjoyed puzzles. I loved the clear, focused feeling that came when I concentrated on solving a problem and everything else faded out.

If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.

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.

The President Barack Obama had suggested that I not watch the news during the confirmation process. I assiduously followed his advice.

I savor life. When you have anything that threatens life it prods you into stepping back and really appreciating the value of life and taking from it what you can.

A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.

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.

An alcoholic father, poverty, my own juvenile diabetes, the limited English my parents spoke – although my mother has become completely bilingual since. All these things intrude on what most people think of as happiness.

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.

The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn’t have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.

Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich.

My judicial philosophy is fidelity to the law.

My diabetes is such a central part of my life… it did teach me discipline, it also taught me about moderation. I’ve trained myself to be super-vigilant because I feel better when I am in control.

Although wisdom is built on life experiences, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.

The ability to learn is a gift even pain is our teacher!

You are either withholding your love in fear or giving your deepest gifts.

Just as you maintain your home, your car, your garden, you should look after your greatest gift: your body.

All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.

Ask for the grace you gift others ( you’re allowed to need what you give.) – you’re not needy.

What if God’s ‘NO,’ is really a gift? His way to protect us from what we cannot see, provide something better than we can imagine, or be part of the process of growing us closer to Him.

As God loves a cheerful giver, so he also loves a cheerful taker. Who takes hold of his gifts with a glad heart.

We should not have a petty regard for God’s gifts, though we may and should despise our own imperfections.