Until we reach equality in education, we can’t reach equality in the larger society.
SONIA SOTOMAYORI 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.
More Sonia Sotomayor Quotes
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I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.
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There are no bystanders in life. Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.
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You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.
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Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.
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I have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.
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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.
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When everyone at school is speaking one language, and a lot of your classmates’ parents also speak it, and you go home and see that your community is different -there is a sense of shame attached to that. It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.
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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.
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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.
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Although wisdom is built on life experiences, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.
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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.
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I’ve spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me.
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Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.
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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.
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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.
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