“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.”

There are uses to adversity, and they don’t reveal themselves until tested. Whether it’s serious illness, financial hardship, or the simple constraint of parents who speak limited English, difficulty can tap unexpected strengths.

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.

I’ve spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me.

I realized that people had an unreal image of me, that somehow I was a god on Mount Olympus. I decided that if I were going to make use of my role as a Supreme Court Justice, it would be to inspire people to realize that, first, I was just like them and second, if I could do it, so could they.

We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences…our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

Diabetes taught me discipline.

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.

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.

We educated, privileged lawyers have a professional and moral duty to represent the underrepresented in our society, to ensure that justice exists for all, both legal and economic justice.

There are no bystanders in life. Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.

I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences.

I don’t believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

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

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.

First appearance deceives many.

Comedy is a serious business. A serious business with only one purpose -to make people laugh.

Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.

The invasion only made matters worse. The occupation will not work, Iraq is unoccupiable, that will not work.

More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.

The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.

War is the business of barbarians.