"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for. "
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"...Atticus, he was real nice...."
"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself...It's a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent."
— Harper Lee

"...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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"I want you to see what real courage is before you think that it's some man with a gun in his hand. Courage is when you go into a fight knowing you're gonna get licked but you go in anyway and don't give up till it's over."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee

"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, he is trash."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around it."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful.
“How do you know a match don't hurt him?”
“Turtles cant feel, stupid,” said Jem.
“Where you ever a turtle, huh?"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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.(Miss Maudie)"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Pass the damn ham, please."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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 you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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 you see it through no matter what."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children. ~To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 16, spoken by the character Atticus"
— Harper Lee

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"See there?" Jem was scowling triumphantly. "Nothin' to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl its mortifyin"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike -- in the second place, folks don't like to have someone around knowin' more than they do. It aggravates them. Your not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"People in their right minds never take pride in their talents."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Summer, and he watches his children's heart break. Autumn again and Boo's children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"It's not time to worry yet"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"An' Atticus, When they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice...

His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me.

Most people are, Scout. When you finally see them."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"No, everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowin'. That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothin's wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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 "
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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"
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. To Kill A Mockingbird."
— Harper Lee

"She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"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."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"As a reader I loathe introductions...Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Scout, I´m telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home - I declare to the Lord you´re gettin´ more like a girl every day!”
With that, I had no option but to join them."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)