Sonia Sotomayor Quotes & Sayings

I couldn't even tell if I had any sadness of my own, because I was so full of Abuelita's sadness. — Sonia Sotomayor

I don't prejudge. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

The persistence or failure of human relationships cannot be predicted by any set of objective or universal criteria. We are all limited, highly imperfect beings, worthy in some dimensions, deficient in others, and if we would understand how any of our connections survive, we would do well to look first to what is good in each of us. — Sonia Sotomayor

Achievement was all very well, but it was the process, not — Sonia Sotomayor

We have to look and ensure that we're paying attention to what we're doing, so that we don't reflexively institute processes and procedures that exclude people without thought. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

I found in my experiences that it's not that men are consciously discriminating against promoting women, but I do believe as people we have self-images about what's good. — Sonia Sotomayor

You've got to get your education! It's the only way to get ahead in the world. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

The Latino community anchored me, but I didn't want it to isolate me from the full extent of what Princeton had to offer, including engagement with the larger community. Page 148 — Sonia Sotomayor

Sometimes it gets boring. No justice is supposed to say that. But, you know, there's drudgery in every job you're going to do. — Sonia Sotomayor

[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

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

The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever. — Sonia Sotomayor

All judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial. — Sonia Sotomayor

Sometimes, even if there was no useful advice to give, I saw that listening still helped. — Sonia Sotomayor

I will be judged as a human being by what readers find here. There are hazards to openness, but they seem minor compared with the possibility that some readers may find comfort, perhaps even inspiration, from a close examination of how an ordinary person, with strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, has managed an extraordinary journey. — Sonia Sotomayor

As 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

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

All 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

It's not the heart that compels conclusions in cases, it's the law. — Sonia Sotomayor

Every people has a past, but the dignity of a history comes when a community of scholars devotes itself to chronicling and studying that past. — Sonia Sotomayor

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. — Sonia Sotomayor

Good people can do bad things, make bad decisions. It doesn't make them bad people. — Sonia Sotomayor

The best I could say about third grade was that it was a more or less continuous state of dread. — Sonia Sotomayor

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. — Sonia Sotomayor

He was teaching the common-law rule against perpetuities, which limits how far into the future a will can control a line of inheritance. — Sonia Sotomayor

No matter how liberal I am, I'm still outraged by crimes of violence. Regardless of whether I can sympathize with the causes that lead these individuals to do these crimes, the effects are outrageous. — Sonia Sotomayor

Much of the uncertainty of law is not an unfortunate accident: it is of immense social value. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

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

I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

I am willing to bet that there are some Puerto Ricans who don't know about [their status]. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

I think being a Catholic made me a better person. It taught me how to choose good over evil, and how to be a more caring human being. — Sonia Sotomayor

Since I have difficulty defining merit and what merit alone means - and in any context, whether it's judicial or otherwise - I accept that different experiences in and of itself, bring merit to the system. — Sonia Sotomayor

Success is its own reward, but failure is a great teacher too, and not to be feared. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

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

I've spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me. — Sonia Sotomayor

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. — Sonia Sotomayor

Virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in heaven. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

I felt like everyones second choice, which is why a compliment could catch me off guard. Page 106 — Sonia Sotomayor

Seeing my mother get back to her studies was all the proof I needed that a chain of emotion can persuade when one forged of logic won't hold. But more important was her example that a surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. It was something I would remember often in years ahead, whenever faced with fears that I wasn't smart enough to succeed. — Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia lives her life fully. If she dies tomorrow, she'll die happy. If she lives the way you want her to live, she'll die miserable. So leave her alone, okay? — Sonia Sotomayor

There are things you may know in your heart for a long while without admitting them to conscious awareness, until, unexpectedly, something triggers an inescapable realization. — Sonia Sotomayor

Time came. Or so I was later told. Sometimes, idealistic people are put off the whole business of networking as something tainted by flattery and the pursuit of selfish advantage. But virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in heaven. To succeed in this world, you have to be known to people. Nevertheless, — Sonia Sotomayor

You cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. The real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire. — Sonia Sotomayor

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. — Sonia Sotomayor

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. — Sonia Sotomayor

I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate. — Sonia Sotomayor

Oh my God, I don't think you can say anyone looks forward to controversy. — Sonia Sotomayor

My judicial philosophy is fidelity to the law. — Sonia Sotomayor

Reaching a conclusion has to start with what the parties are arguing, but examining in all situations carefully the facts as they prove them or not prove them, the record as they create it, and then making a decision that is limited to what the law says on the facts before the judge. — Sonia Sotomayor

There is indeed something deeply wrong with a person who lacks principles, who has no moral core. There are, likewise, certainly values that brook no compromise, and I would count among them integrity, fairness, and the avoidance of cruelty. But I have never accepted the argument that principle is compromised by judging each situation on its own merits, with due appreciation of the idiosyncrasy of human motivation and fallibility. — Sonia Sotomayor

Outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a state using sexual orientation as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits or imposing burdens on them? Is there any other rational decision-making that the government could make? Denying them a job, not granting them benefits of some sort, any other decision? — Sonia Sotomayor

So 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

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. — Sonia Sotomayor

I think it's important to move people beyond just dreaming into doing. They have to be able to see that you are just like them, and you made it. — Sonia Sotomayor

You make your life choices understanding that you might and do have to work harder to prove yourself. — Sonia Sotomayor

We apply law to facts. We don't apply feelings to facts. — Sonia Sotomayor

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 feared. Page 135 — Sonia Sotomayor

I've never had my dexterity called into question, but I think if that was ever the case, I could acquit myself by tossing a ball back and forth horizontally between my hands. — Sonia Sotomayor

I war running back to the house in Mayaguez with a melting ice cone we called a piraqua running sweet and sticky down my face and arms, the sun in my eyes, breaking through clouds and glinting off the rain-soaked pavement and dripping leaves. I was running with joy, an overwhelming joy that arose simply from gratitude for the fact of being alive. Along with the image, memory carried these words from a child's mind through time: I am blessed. In this life I am truly blessed. — Sonia Sotomayor

You can't dream unless you know what the possibilities are. — Sonia Sotomayor

I am a New Yorker, and 7:00 A.M. is a civilized hour to finish the day, not to start it. — Sonia Sotomayor

Quiet pragmatism, of course, lacks the romance of vocal militancy. But I felt myself more a mediator than a crusader. My strengths were reasoning, crafting compromises, finding the good and the good faith on both sides of an argument, and using that to build a bridge. Always, my first question was, what's the goal? And then, who must be persuaded if it is to be accomplished? A respectful dialogue with one's opponent almost invariably goes further than a harangue outside his or her window. If you want to change someone's mind, you must understand what need shapes his or her opinion. To prevail, you must first listen. — Sonia Sotomayor

When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what she may aspire to become
whether lawyer, scientist, artist, or leader in any realm
her goal remains abstract. Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. But 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. — Sonia Sotomayor

There are no bystanders in life [ ... ] Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves. — Sonia Sotomayor

It seems obvious now: the child who spends school days in a fog of semi-comprehension has no way to know her problem is not that she is slow-witted. — Sonia Sotomayor

How many times would a defendant's lawyer enter the courtroom before a session and ask each of the male clerks and paralegals around me, 'Are you the assistant in charge?' while I sat there invisible to him at the head of the table? — Sonia Sotomayor

You 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

I have ventured to write more intimately about my personal life than is customary for a member of the Supreme Court, and with that candor comes a measure of vulnerability. — Sonia Sotomayor

The 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

The schools that suffer are the schools in, in poor neighborhoods. They are the neighborhoods with the greatest need, with the parents struggling to work and to make ends meet. They don't have enough resources to give, they don't have enough resources to pay more, and these are the neighborhoods that go first. — Sonia Sotomayor

A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. Page 115 — Sonia Sotomayor

I've never wanted to get adjusted to my income, because I knew I wanted to go back to public service. And in comparison to what my mother earns and how I was raised, it's not modest at all. I have no right to complain. — Sonia Sotomayor

The task of a judge is not to make the law - it is to apply the law. — Sonia Sotomayor

Many of my classmates have happier memories of Blessed Sacrament, and in time I would find my own satisfaction in the classroom. My first years there, however, I met with little warmth. In part, it was that the nuns were critical of working mothers, and their disapproval was felt by latchkey kids. The irony of course was that my mother wouldn't have been working such long hours if not to pay for that education she believed was the key to any aspirations for a better life. — Sonia Sotomayor

Don't let fear stop you. Don't give up because you are paralyzed by insecurity or overwhelmed by the odds, because in giving up, you give up hope. Understand that failure is a process in life, that only in trying can you enrich yourself and have the possibility of moving forward. The greatest obstacle in life is fear and giving up because of it. — Sonia Sotomayor

There are no bystanders in this life. — Sonia Sotomayor

Next to the monitor that showed the jobs queuing to run on the computer was a metal post that seemed to serve no purpose. It was a while before someone explained it to me: after repeatedly replastering the wall, the administration had decided to install the post for the convenience of frustrated students, who invariably needed something to kick when their code crashed. — Sonia Sotomayor

I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence. — Sonia Sotomayor

To me, lawyering is the height of service - and being involved in this profession is a gift. — Sonia Sotomayor

I accepted what the Sisters taught in religion class: that God is loving, merciful, charitable, forgiving. That message didn't jibe with adults smacking kids. — Sonia Sotomayor

This wealth of experiences, personal and professional, have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear. — Sonia Sotomayor

I had many reasons for writing this book but among them was the hope that every Latino child and adult would find something familiar in it. And my hope is that when they finish reading the book, that they will come away with a renewed sense of pride in our culture and in who we are. We get a lot of strength from that [culture and identity] and we should be proud of it. — Sonia Sotomayor

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

You can't say: This much love is worth this much misery. They're not opposites that cancel each other out; they're both true at the same time. — Sonia Sotomayor

As a Catholic, you can have two views on capital punishment. You can think, let Caesar do what Caesar needs to do, and the law says you can impose capital punishment, so you impose it. You can [also] be a Catholic who says we can't kill, we can't kill babies and we can't kill adults. If you let a decision be driven by your personal views, then you are not doing what a judge needs to do, which is enforce the laws of the society that you are in. But you can control your own behavior, and that is the choice that the church and God gives us - what kind of people are we going to be. — Sonia Sotomayor

The bride Celina and her groom Omar, with Junior, now Dr. Sotomayor. As my first official act, — Sonia Sotomayor

The Parkchester Library was my haven. To thumb through the card catalog was to touch an infinite bounty, more books than I could ever possibly exhaust. — 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

If 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

There's a great variety of people in Washington, but I think because of the great concentration of people in New York, that variety is more visible. You walk the streets and there are people of every color, shape and size, ethnic background, religion, it doesn't matter. It's always present. — Sonia Sotomayor

I accept the proposition that ... to judge is an exercise of power and because ... there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives
no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging, I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. — Sonia Sotomayor

I am a very spiritual person. Maybe not traditionally religious in terms of Sunday Mass every week, that sort of thing. — Sonia Sotomayor