“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.””

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.

I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.

As you discover what strength you can draw from your community in this world from which it stands apart, look outward as well as inward. Build bridges instead of walls.

The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.

I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there.

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.

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.

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.

The President Barack Obama had suggested that I not watch the news during the confirmation process. I assiduously followed his advice.

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.

A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich.

You cannot leave and have me too I cannot exist in two places at once-when you ask if we can still be friends.

Only In Coexistence Is Sustained Existence Possible.

Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence.

Perhaps the saddest of all are those who living waiting for someone they’re not sure exists.

Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts that could not exist without it.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Beneath this skin beneath these bones beneath this blood I exist.

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.