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If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.

Sonia Sotomayor

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
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
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Achievement Children Different Help Music Yourself
I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Believe Children Confidence Life Love Myself Respect Thrive
If I write a book where all I’ve ever experienced is success, people won’t take a positive lesson from it. In being candid, I have to own up to my own failures, both in my marriage and in my work environment.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Book Environment Experience Failure Myself People Success Work Writing
I have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Focus Myself Negative Positive
Experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Aspiration Dreams Experience Reality True Value
Don’t be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Herself Party Shy Teacher Willing
If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Children Competition Goodness Live Ourselves Poor Preparation Program
I was a keen observer and listener. I picked up on clues. I figured things out logically, and I enjoyed puzzles. I loved the clear, focused feeling that came when I concentrated on solving a problem and everything else faded out.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Enjoyment Fade Listening Logic Myself Observation Problem
The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Fire Forever Myself
To me, lawyering is the height of service – and being involved in this profession is a gift.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Gift Law Myself Professional Service
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
Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don’t seek out that kind of success. And others do.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Battle Choice Engagement Kindness People Seek
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
There are no bystanders in this life.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

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

Bad Believe Experience Goodness Judgement Life Opportunity Person
We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Difference Fact Feelings Law
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Hope Life Man Myself Reach Rich Woman
Don’t mistake politeness for lack of strength.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Mistake Polite Strength
You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Dreams Possible Yourself
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Life Philosophy Threat Value Yourself
If the system is broken, my inclination is to fix it rather than to fight it. I have faith in the process of the law, and if it is carried out fairly, I can live with the results, whatever they may be.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Break Carry Fight Live Myself Process Result System
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
Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Alone Future Oneself Path Remember Success Walk
I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Accomplishment Action Institution Myself Quality Thinking
Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Choice Experience Judgement Personal See

If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.

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If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.

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