01c. 1954 ADThe 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 / quote ↗
02c. 1954 ADI would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support and comfort from your own group as you can, but don’t hide within it.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
03c. 1954 ADIf you held to principle so passionately, so inflexibly, indifferent in the particulars of circumstance - the full range of what human beings, with all their flaws and foibles, might endure or create - if you enthroned principle above even reason, weren't you then abdicating the responsibilities of a thinking person?Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
04c. 1954 ADIn my experience when a friend unloaded about a boyfriend or spouse, the listener soaked up the complaint and remembered it long after the speaker had forgiven the offense.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
05c. 1954 ADAs difficult an environment as the DA's Office could be, I saw no overarching conspiracy against women. The unequal treatment was usually more a matter of old habits dying hard.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
06c. 1954 ADLearning how to balance the needs of individuals with the no-less-real needs of an institution was an important lesson. It's fine to be on the side of the little guy, but he too will ultimately suffer if the health and concerns of the greater body he belongs to are neglected.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
07c. 1954 AD[T]he habit of living as if in the shadow of death has remained with me, and I consider that, too, a gift.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
08c. 1954 ADThe differences were plain enough, and yet I saw that they were as nothing compared with what we had in common. As I lay in bed at night, the sky outside my window reflecting the city's dim glow, I thought about Abuelita’s fierce loyalty to blood. But what really binds people as family? The way they shore themselves up with stories; the way siblings can feud bitterly but still come through for each other; how an untimely death, a child gone before a parent, shakes the very foundations; how the weaker ones, the ones with invisible wounds, are sheltered; how a constant din is medicine against loneliness; and how celebrating the same occasions year after year steels us to the changes they herald. And always food at the center of it all.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
09c. 1954 ADThere were no actual villains, just inertia. The administration genuinely wanted more diversity for reasons of its image as well as fairness, notwithstanding the cranky alumni letters in The Daily Princetonian. ... Hiring committees had not a clue where to look for or how to attract suitable candidates. And so, though a high-level recruitment plan existed on paper, there was only foot-dragging and defensive excuse making.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
10c. 1954 ADI 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 / quote ↗
11c. 1954 ADSo many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren't always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself - at the optimism and hope - you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
12c. 1954 ADI hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
13c. 1954 ADYou know, failure hurts. Any kind of failure stings. If you live in the sting, you will - undoubtedly - fail. My way of getting past the sting is to say no, I'm just not going to let this get me down.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
14c. 1954 ADI am a New Yorker, and 7:00 A.M. is a civilized hour to finish the day, not to start it.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
15c. 1954 ADThe 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 / quote ↗
16c. 1954 ADIt is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shaped us in ways that we might not understand.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
17c. 1954 ADAll of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people out there with court of appeals experience, because court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know, I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. I know.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
18c. 1954 ADI have never, ever focused on the negative of things. I always look at the positive.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
19c. 1954 ADI have had positive experiences with cameras. When I have been asked to join experiments using cameras in the courtroom, I have participated; I have volunteered.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
20c. 1954 ADIf 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 / quote ↗
21c. 1954 ADI strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
22c. 1954 ADWhen 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.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
23c. 1954 ADWe 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 / quote ↗
24c. 1954 ADIt is our responsibility to explain to the public how an often unpredictable system of justice is one that serves a productive, civilized, but always evolving, society.Sonia Sotomayor / quote ↗
