Quotes by Harper Lee

It had never fully occurred to Jean Louise that she was a girl: her life had been one of reckless, pummeling activity; fighting, football, climbing, keeping up with Jem, and besting anyone her own age in any contest requiring physical prowess.

She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did something every child has done-she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim-of necessity she must put him away from her-he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense.

I just know Maycomb. Im not in the least sensitive about it, but good Lord, Im certainly aware of it.

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

Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open.

Were paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. Its that simple.

If a man says to you, This is the truth, and you believe him, and you discover what he says is not the truth, you are disappointed and you make sure you will not be caught out by him again. But a man who has lived by the truth-and you have believed in what he has lived-he does not leave you merely wary when he fails you, he leaves you with nothing.

If a man says to you, This is the truth, and you believe him, and you discover what he says is not the truth, you are disappointed and you make sure you will not be caught by him again. But a man who has lived the truth--and you have believed in what he has lived--he does not leave you merely wary when he fails you, he leaves you with nothing.

I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.

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.

I mean this: every time I come home, I feel like Im coming back to the world, and when I leave Macomb its like leaving the world.

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.

No, everybodys gotta learn, nobodys born knowin. That Walters as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothins wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think theres just one kind of folks. Folks. .... Thats what I thought too, he said at last, when I was your age. If theres just one kind of folks, why cant they get along with each other? If theyre all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think Im beginning to understand why Boo Radleys stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . its because he wants to stay inside.

We came to the street light in the corner, and I wondered how many times Dill stood there hugging the fat pole, watching, waiting, hoping. I wondered how many times Jem and I had made this journey, but I entered the Radley front gate for the seecond time in my life. 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.Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: w had given him nothing, and it made me sad.

Whatever she says to you, it’s your jobnot to let her make you mad.

The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.

I need a watchman to tell me this is what a man says but this is what he means, to draw a line down the middle and say here is this justice and there is that justice and make me understand the difference.

They are simple people, most of them, but that doesnt make them subhuman.You are telling them Jesus loves them, but not much.

One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one cant do anything about them.