242 Quotes by Sonia Sotomayor

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.

If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what’s important to them.

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.

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.

Oh my God, I don’t think you can say anyone looks forward to controversy.

You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.

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.

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.

I was raised in a Bronx public housing project, but studied at two of the nation’s finest universities. I did work as an assistant district attorney, prosecuting violent crimes that devastate our communities.