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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

I have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Focus Myself Negative Positive
You know, failure hurts. Any kind of failure stings. If you live in the sting, you will – undoubtedly – fail. My way of getting past the sting is to say no, I’m just not going to let this get me down.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Doubt Failure Hurt Live Myself
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
Success is its own reward, but failure is a great teacher too, and not to be feared.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Failure Fear Greatness Reward Success Teacher
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Equality Existence Inequality Ourselves Protection Race Society Task
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Economics Education Justice Legal Moral Privilege Professional Representation Society
There are no bystanders in this life.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Life One Liner Stand
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
I have never had to face anything that could overwhelm the native optimism and stubborn perseverance I was blessed with.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Blessing Face Myself Native Perseverance
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
We have to look and ensure that we’re paying attention to what we’re doing, so that we don’t reflexively institute processes and procedures that exclude people without thought.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Attention Institution Pay People Procedure Thinking
The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Fire Forever Myself
Diabetes taught me discipline.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Discipline Myself One Liner Sick Teaching
A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Confidence Effort
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
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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