Quotes from Harper Lee

Hell is eternal apartness. What had she done that she must spend the rest of her years reaching out with yearning for them, making secret trips to long ago, making no journey to the present? I am their blood and bones, I have dug in this ground, this is my home. But I am not their blood, the ground doesn't care who digs it, I am a stranger at a cocktail party.

I could think of nothing else to say to her. In fact I could never think of anything to say to her, and I sat thinking of past painful conversations between us: How are you, Jean Louise? Fine, thank you ma'am, how are you? Very well, thank you; what have you been doing with yourself? Nothin'. Don't you do anything? Nome. Certainly you have friends? Yessum. Well what do you all do? Nothin'.

Integrity, humor, and patience were the three words for Atticus Finch.

Miss Maudie's hand closed tightly on mine, and I said nothing. Its warmth was enough.

Dill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions.

I think there might be a better way,change the law

I think I'll be a clown when I get grown, said Dill. Yes, sir, a clown... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.

Miss Caroline seemed unaware that the ragged, denim-shirted and floursack-skirted first grade, most of whom had chopped cotton and fed hogs from the time they were able to walk, were immune to imaginative literature.

Love whom you will but marry your own kind was a dictum amounting to instinct within her.

Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, I would have felt sorry for her. She was a pretty little thing.

We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe. Some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cupcakes than others; some are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.

That's what I thought, too when I was your age. 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?

The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there.

Dill if you don't hush I'll knock you bowlegged.

Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was-she goin' down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her- she was talking with Miss Stephen Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home-

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.

When Atticus came home to dinner he found me crouched down aiming across the street. What are you shooting at? Miss Maudie's rear end. Atticus turned and saw my generous target bending over her bushes. He pushed his hat to the back of his head and crossed the street. Maudie, he called, I thought I'd better warn you. You're in considerable peril. Miss Maudie straightened up and looked toward me. She said,Atticus, you are a devil from hell.

You aren't thin-hided, it just makes you sick, doesn't it?

But I never figured out how Atticus knew I was listening, and it was not until many years later that I realized he wanted me to hear every word he said.

He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

There's some folks who don't eat like us, she whispered fiercely, but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?

Then Mr. Underwood's meaning became clear: Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.

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

Jem was a born hero.