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.”

“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 experie...”

“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,...”

“Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land', in most instances they're not even law.”

“I stand on the shoulders of countless people, yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration. That person is my mother, Celina Sotomayor.”

“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 devastat...”

“In examining witnesses, I learned to ask general questions so as to elicit details with powerful sensory associations: the colors, the sounds, the smells that lodge an image in the mind and...”

“When 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 att...”

“I want to state upfront, unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any racial, ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an eq...”

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

“When you come from a background like mine, where you're entering worlds that are so different than your own, you have to be afraid.”

“I barely saw my mother, and the mom I saw was often angry and unhappy. The mother I grew up with is not the mother I know now. It's not the mother she became after my father died, and that's...”

“I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights.”

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

“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...”

“I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.”

“Each time I see a split infinitive, an inconsistent tense structure or the unnecessary use of the passive voice, I blister.”

“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.”

“I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.”

“I 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.”