Harper Lee Quotes

Things are never as bad as they seem.

"I shall never marry, Atticus."
"Why?"
"I might have children."

A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know — doesn't say much for them, does it?

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

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

I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it — seems that only children weep.

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.

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

What does a bigot do when he meets someone who challenges his opinions? He doesn’t give. He stays rigid. Doesn’t even try to listen, just lashes out.

And it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don't know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit. Of course he shouldn't, but he'll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?

Nothin’s real scary except in books.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

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

There is one way in this country in which all men are created equal — there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is the court.

If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.