Quotes by Harper Lee

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

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”

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

“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.”

“Im no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.”

“Well, theyre Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldnt dream of interrupting you at golf.”

“I think theres just one kind of folks. Folks.”

“Folks dont like to have somebody around knowing more than they do. It aggravates em. Youre not gonna change any of them by talking right, theyve got to want to learn themselves, and when they dont want to learn theres nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”

“Youve really got to start hitting the books because its no joke out here.”

““I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown….. Yes, sir, a clown. There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off… I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks. Just looka yonder, every one of ’em oughta be ridin’ a broomstick.””

With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.

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.

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.

As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and dont think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, Im probably no better than you, but Im certainly your equal.

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.

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

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

The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, youll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and dont you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.

Naw, Jem. I think that there is just one kind of folks. Folks.Jen turned and punched his pillow. WHen he settle back his face was cloudy. He was going in to one of his declines, and I grew wary. His brows came together; his mouth became a thin line. He was silent for a while. That is what I thought, too, he said at last, when I was your age. If there is just one kind of folks, why cant they get along with each other? If theyre all alike, why do they go ut of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I am beginning to understand something. I think Im beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time...its because he wants to stay inside

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.