I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
Sonia SotomayorRead
I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence.
Interpretation
Children need at least one supportive adult who offers them love and respect to flourish.
This quote emphasizes the crucial role that an adult can play in a child's development, highlighting that unconditional love, respect, and confidence from a caregiver or mentor can significantly impact a child's ability to thrive emotionally and socially. It underlines the importance of positive relationships in shaping a child's future and self-worth.
In practice
In a speech on early childhood development, I quoted Sonia Sotomayor to emphasize the importance of nurturing relationships.
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
This wealth of experiences, personal and professional, have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear.
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.
The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.
As you discover what strength you can draw from your community in this world from which it stands apart, look outward as well as inward. Build bridges instead of walls.
There are uses to adversity, and they don't reveal themselves until tested. Whether it's serious illness, financial hardship, or the simple constraint of parents who speak limited English, difficulty can tap unexpected strengths.
I think when you become a parent you go from being a star in the movie of your own life to the supporting player in the movie of someone else's.
The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator.
The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.
Family dramas are tough, as a playwright. Most stories are about characters going on a trip or a new character coming to town, because that's how you learn information about them. But with family, they all know each other already. There's years of history in every interaction.
Whenever I feel like I'm getting too far away from where I need to be, I think about my sons and the legacy I have to leave for them - and it always brings me back to reality.
We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.
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