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

Sonia Sotomayor

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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Adversity Difficult Expectation Limitation Reveal Serious Sick Simplicity Strength
You make your life choices understanding that you might and do have to work harder to prove yourself.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Choice Hard Work Life Understand Yourself
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Business Gift Government Help Law Person Professional Representation Service Try
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Bad Book Escape Life Myself Power Reading Travel Universe Word
Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Career Fun Pretend
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Age Break Imagination Myself Old People Time Understand View
I came to accept during my freshman year that many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural background, not lack of aptitude or application as I’d feared.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Acceptance Culture Fear Knowledge Law Myself Simplicity Understand
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Believe Myself Position Qualification Responsibility Work Wrong
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Blessing Experience Myself Opportunity Ordinary Person
Until we reach equality in education, we can’t reach equality in the larger society.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Education Equality Reach Society
My judicial philosophy is fidelity to the law.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Judiciary Law Myself Philosophy
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Constitution Discrimination Eyes Race Stop Talk Way
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Adult Care Children End Existence Interdependence Myself Truth
There are no bystanders in this life.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Life One Liner Stand
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.”
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Existence Inspirational Model Myself Possible Reason Role
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Community Diversity Feeling

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

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

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