To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

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

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

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,

Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin 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.’

‘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.

‘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 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.

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.

‘It’s not necessary to tell all you know. It’s not lady-like – in the second place, folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ’em. You’re 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.’

I said I would like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can’t do anything about them.