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

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

Business Decision Forget Government Reality World
A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Confidence Effort
Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Career Fun Pretend
My diabetes is such a central part of my life… it did teach me discipline, it also taught me about moderation. I’ve trained myself to be super-vigilant because I feel better when I am in control.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Better Control Discipline Feeling Life Myself Sick Teaching Training
To me, lawyering is the height of service – and being involved in this profession is a gift.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Gift Law Myself Professional Service
Don’t mistake politeness for lack of strength.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Mistake Polite Strength
Without question, so many people, throughout my life, never think of Puerto Rico as part of the United States. Many people have no idea what the relationship is between Puerto Rico and the United States. And certainly, I have been asked if we are citizens.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Citizenship Ideas Life Myself People Question Relationship Thinking
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
You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

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

Expectation Myself Self Love Worth
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Build Community Discover Stand Strength Wall Yourself
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
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
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
We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Difference Fact Feelings Law
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
Although wisdom is built on life experiences, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Build Experience Life Philosophy Wisdom
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
I have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Focus Myself Negative Positive
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.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Achievement Challenge Face Material Myself Poor Poverty Sick
Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Alone Future Oneself Path Remember Success Walk
Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Choice Experience Judgement Personal See
I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can’t imagine someone else’s point of view.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Age Break Imagination Myself Old People Time Understand View
Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR

Challenge Growth Life Modesty Myself Rich

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

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

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