“You make your life choices understanding that you might and do have to work harder to prove yourself.”

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.

There are no bystanders in this life.

I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

Don’t be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.

Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.

I do know one thing about me: I don’t measure myself by others’ expectations or let others define my worth.

Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.

You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.

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.

It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.

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.

Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don’t seek out that kind of success. And others do.

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.”

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.

I have never had to face anything that could overwhelm the native optimism and stubborn perseverance I was blessed with.

Years are only garments, and you either wear them with style all your life, or else you go dowdy to the grave.

War is just to those to whom war is necessary.

If you are insulted, if you are accused, if they gossip about you, don’t say anything bad. Don’t be the one who sees the shame, be the one who corrects it.

Magic is what happened when I chose me over you.

Remembering everything is not the only solution. Perhaps, forgetfulness can make us live in peace too.

The excuse for the destruction of liberty is always the plea of necessary ‘ that there is no alternative.

Sometimes you have to choose between planting roots or growing wings.

When people are cruel, we can join them in their poison or find freedom in love.