Sonia Sotomayor Quotes

A hug from Papi would have been nice just then. I couldn't deny that our life was so much better now, but I did miss him. For all the misery he caused, I knew with certainty that he loved us. Those aren't things you can measure or weigh. 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.

Not every experiment is a success. That’s the nature of doing science.” The nature of doing many things, I might add: success is its own reward, but failure is a great teacher too, and not to be feared.

Leveraging emotional intelligence in the courtroom, as in life, depends on being attentive; the key is always to watch and listen.

Esas cosas no se pueden medir ni pesar. No puedes decir: esta cantidad de amor equivale a esta cantidad de sufrimiento. No son opuestos que se cancelan mutuamente; ambos son verdaderos al mismo tiempo.

Be diplomatic but direct, I told myself. I don’t tend to bang people over the head, but some situations require a bit of boldness

the difference between winning and losing came down to the appeal by emotion rather than fact alone.

Constructing a chain of logic was one thing; building a chain of emotions required a different understanding.

there’s something very special about you. You’ve been blessed. I’m glad we met.

How was it I had escaped when my soul’s twin, my smarter half, once joined to me at the hip, had not? His request [to forgive him] only made the load heavier. My God, what a waste.

Meanwhile, a summer job doing research in the Office of Social Responsibility at the Equitable Life Assurance Society in Manhattan would provide my first glimpse inside corporate America. It was, to say the least, a letdown: I was shocked at how much time presumably productive people were capable of wasting.

Their chances of escaping from the underclass, from the vicious cycle of poverty, were no better than those of their similarly alienated black neighbors and probably worse for those who didn’t speak English

So much is communicated in tone of voice, in subtleties of expression, and in body language.

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 is 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.

I had never before in all these years asked that very intelligent and perceptive woman for her own version of events. I would be startled by what I uncovered and grateful even at this remove to meet a happier version of my father — and my mother — than I ever knew.

I didn’t entirely trust this new reality, my mother’s transformation included.