I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
Sonia SotomayorRead
I've never wanted to get adjusted to my income, because I knew I wanted to go back to public service. And in comparison to what my mother earns and how I was raised, it's not modest at all. I have no right to complain.
Interpretation
The speaker emphasizes the importance of humility and public service over personal wealth.
In this quote, Sonia Sotomayor reflects on her financial situation, recognizing that despite her income being higher than what she grew up with, she remains committed to her values and the calling of public service. She expresses gratitude for her circumstances while also acknowledging her responsibility to serve others rather than becoming complacent with her earnings.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the importance of choosing a career in public service.
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.
Basic income is not a utopia, it's a practical business plan for the next step of the human journey.
Acquire the art of detachment, the virtue of method, and the quality of thoroughness, but above all the grace of humility.
If you want God's grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing. But that kind of spiritual humility is hard to muster. We come to God saying, "Look at all I've done," or maybe "Look at all I've suffered." God, however, wants us to look to him - to just wash.
The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.
We must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.
I just think that - when a country needs more income and we do, we're only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that - that - when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.
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