“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.”

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.

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.

I’ve spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me.

I realized that people had an unreal image of me, that somehow I was a god on Mount Olympus. I decided that if I were going to make use of my role as a Supreme Court Justice, it would be to inspire people to realize that, first, I was just like them and second, if I could do it, so could they.

We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences…our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

Diabetes taught me discipline.

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.

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.

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.

There are no bystanders in life. Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.

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

I don’t believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.

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.

To me, lawyering is the height of service – and being involved in this profession is a gift.

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.

I’m just saying that we need to find a better way to manifest the broader society’s aspirations, politically.

The key to it has to be some sort of proportional representation, which allows there to be more parties.

The Governor has no presidential aspirations. In fact he just made a tour of 43 states just to tell them he’s not running for anything.

Israel has to accommodate the Palestinian demands and aspirations for ending occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That is the only answer.

It is when you are confronted with challenges that you see what you are really made of, what is important to you and what your true aspirations are…sometimes you think that you really know yourself, and then you find out that you really don’t.

It is an objective which when achieved, will bring about the fulfillment of the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent everywhere. It will at the same time advance the triumph of the international socialist revolution.

I have so many goals and aspirations that sometimes I lose myself.

I knew that I lived in a country in which the aspirations of black people were limited, marked-off. Yet I felt that I had to go somewhere and do something to redeem my being alive.