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 SOTOMAYORWe apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.
More Sonia Sotomayor Quotes
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I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.
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I do know one thing about me: I don’t measure myself by others’ expectations or let others define my worth.
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It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.
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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.
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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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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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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.
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Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don’t seek out that kind of success. And others do.
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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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Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.
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I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there.
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A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.
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Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.
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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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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.
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