Quotes from Sonia Sotomayor

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

Diabetes taught me discipline.

I honestly felt no envy or resentment, only astonishment at how much of a world there was out there and how much of it others already knew. The agenda for self-cultivation that had been set for my classmates by their teachers and parents was something I'd have to develop for myself.

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

It is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shaped us in ways that we might not understand.

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.

You can't be a minority in this society without having someone express disapproval about affirmative action.

Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society.

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

Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich.

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

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.

What's quote-unquote a 'good' lawyer, doctor, or whatever the profession is. And if you're a male who grew up professionally in a male-dominated profession, then your image of what a good lawyer is a male image.

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.

We apply law to facts. We don't apply feelings to facts.

There are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action - to try to balance out those effects.

Don't mistake politeness for lack of strength.

Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don't seek out that kind of success. And others do.

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.

Without question, so many people, throughout my life, never think of Puerto Rico as part of the United States.

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

In the wider context, what I believe I was - the point I was making was that our life experiences do permit us to see some facts and understand them more easily than others.

The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.

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