Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Things are always better in the morning.

Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

Some negroes lie, some are immoral, some negro men are not be trusted around women - black and white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.

I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.

It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.

It's not time to worry yet

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night.

One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them.

Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen.

In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one's mind incapable of definite purpose.

I wonder how much of the day I spend just callin' after you.

We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.

...but before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

I willed myself to stay awake, but the rain was so soft and the room was so warm and his voice was so deep and his knee was so snug that I slept.

But before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself.

I think there might be a better way, change the law

...but before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself.The one thing that doesn't abide by mojority rule is a person's conscience.

I had never encountered a being who deliberately perpetuated fraud against himself.

She was the bravest person I ever knew.

If he’s not he should be by now. The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets—

Let the dead bury the dead...

It ain't time to worry yet. I'll let you know when.

The gum looked fresh. I sniffed it and it smelled all right. I licked it and waited for a while. When I did not die, I crammed it into my mouth: Wrigley's Double Mint.

So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

Atticus, he was real nice.""Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.

Don’t talk like that, Dill, ” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.”“I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?”“The way you tell it, it is.

Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to.

Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read

If we followed our feelings all the time, we'd be like cats chasin' their tails.

People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for, and they have a right to subject their children to it.

We can't always have our druthers.

Dill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions.

There are just some kind of men who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.

Boo and I walked up the steps to the porch. His fingers found the doorknob. He gently released my hand, opened the door, enter inside, and shut the door behind him. I never saw him again.

There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.

There are just some kind of men who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one.

Then Mr. Underwood's meaning became clear: Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.

I do my best to love everybody...I'm hard put, sometimes- baby, its never an insult o be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you.

Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.