. . . But experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is instirring within us the will to aspire. That will, wherever it finally leads, does at least move you forward. And after a time you may recognize That the proper measure of success is not how much you've closed the distance to some far-off goal but the quality of what you've done today.

Sometimes, idealistic people are put off the whole business of networking as something tainted by flattery and the pursuit of selfish advantage. But virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in Heaven. To succeed in this world you have to be known to people.

All judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial.

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.

The best I could say about third grade was that it was a more or less continuous state of dread.

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.

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.