Sonia Sotomayor Quotes

I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there. Page 188

I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Yale practiced had opened doors for me. That was its purpose: to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run.

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.

... a surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. Page 115

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.

[T]he more critical lesson I learned that day is still one too many kids never figure out: don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.