Quotes from Harper Lee and 'To Kill A Mocking Bird'

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

“People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for.”

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

“Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.”

“Things are never as bad as they seem.”

A told me to delete the adjectives and I would have the facts.

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

 I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. - - Atticus Finch ( In the book)

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

They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... 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.

 Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - 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.

As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t 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.

People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.

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.

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

You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change. -- Atticus Finch (in the book)

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

When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.

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.

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.

You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.

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

There are just some kind of men who-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 do my best to love everybody.