I think that even someone who got into an institution through affirmative action could prove they were qualified by what they accomplished there. Page 188

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.

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.

Dressing badly has been a refuge much of my life, a way of compelling others to engage with my mind, not my physical presence. Page. 283

I would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support and comfort from your own group as you can, but don’t hide within it.

In my experience when a friend unloaded about a boyfriend or spouse, the listener soaked up the complaint and remembered it long after the speaker had forgiven the offense.

[T]he more critical lesson I learned that day is still one too many kids never figure out: don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.

I couldn’t even tell if I had any sadness of my own, because I was so full of Abuelita’s sadness.

... a surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence. Page 115

I accepted what the Sisters taught in religion class: that God is loving, merciful, charitable, forgiving. That message didn't jibe with adults smacking kids.

Many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural background, not lack of aptitude or application as I feared. Page 135

No one leaves this hidden treasure, Feeling the same way they came, They always refer their friends to this Gem, This island with a beautiful name, My beautiful “Bim”—Barbados

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways

The greatest benefit of depression is the fact that when I have talked about it, every so often someone comes up and says, you saved my dad's life.

In revolutionary times the rich are always the people who are most afraid.

Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar.

People seldom recognize opportunity for it comes disguised as hard work.

The couturier should be a geometrician, for the human body makes geometrical figures to which the materials should correspond.

For one thing I tend not to see myself in various moulds that people fit me into.

People can refute your facts, but never your feelings.

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness on the confines of two everlasting empires, - Necessity and Free Will.