Harper Lee Quotes

Sometimes we have to kill a little so we can live.

Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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

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

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

...reasonable men, they went because we were there. There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried.

In other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama

Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases.

I can't beat you, I can't join you.

There's just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to 'em. Even then, they ain't worth the bullet it takes to shoot 'em.

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

When the new wore off his grandfather’s watch, and carrying it became a day’s burdensome task, Jem no longer felt the necessity of ascertaining the hour every five minutes.

"Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful.
"Ain't hateful, just persuades him- 's not like you'd chunk him in the fire," Jem growled.
"How do you know a match don't hurt him?"
"Turtles can't feel , stupid," said Jem.
"Were you ever a turtle, huh?