Quotes from Harper Lee

No, I mean I can smell somebody an' tell if they're gonna die. An old lady taught me how. Jean--Louise--Finch, you are going to die in three days.

This case is as simple as black and white

You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.

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.

No jury in this part of the world's going to say, We think you're guilty, but not very, on a charge like that. It was either straight acquittal or nothing.

As she welcomed him silently to the human race, the stab of discovery made her tremble a little.

Thought you could kill my Snow-on-the-Mountain, did you? Well, Jessie says that the top's growing back out. Next time you'll know how to do it right, won't you? You'll pull it up by the roots, won't you?

I'm only trying to make you see beyond men's acts to their motives. A man can appear to be a part of something not-so-good on its face, but don't take it upon yourself to judge him unless you know his motives as well. A man can be boiling inside, but he knows a mild answer works better than showing his rage. A man can condemn his enemies, but it's wiser to know them.

If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behaviour, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing.

When it was time to play Boo's big scene, Jem would sneak into the house, steal the scissors from the sewingmachine drawer when Calpurnia's back was turned, then sit in the swing and cut up newspapers. Dill would walk by, cough at Jem, and Jem would fake a plunge into Dill's thigh. From where I stood it looked real.

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.

Volevo che tu vedessi cos'è il vero coraggio, invece di farti l'idea che il coraggio è un uomo con un fucile in mano. E' quando sai che sei battuto prima di cominciare ma cominci lo stesso e vai fino in fondo qualunque cosa succeda. Si vince di rado, ma qualche volta si vince.

in favor of southern womanhood as much as anybody, but not for preserving polite fiction at the expense of human life.

some people have more opportunity because they're born with it…

There's nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll take advantage of a Negro's ignorance. Don't fool yourselves—it's all adding up and one of these days we're going to pay the bill for it. I hope it's not in you children's time.

there are ways of doing things you dont't know about

It was a place where, if troubles did not vanish, they were made bearable.

YetiÅŸkinlerin bak??lar?ndan nefret ediyorum. Ä°nsan kendini suçlu hissediyor.

Cal had told her all girls had it, it was natural as breathing, it was a sign they were growing up, and they had it until they were in their fifties. At the time, Jean Louise was so overcome with despair at the prospect of being too old to enjoy anything when it would finally be over, she refrained from pursuing the subject.

Scout- .. Uncle Jack? Uncle Jack- Ma'am? Scout- What's a whore-lady?

There are just some kind of men 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.

He said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me. I beat him up, but it did no good.

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. 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.

Until comparatively recently in its history, Maycomb County was so cut off from the rest of the nation that some of its citizens, unaware of the South's political predilections over the past ninety years, still voted Republican.