Quotes from Harper Lee

It might benefit you to go back and have a look at what some of our founding fathers really believed, instead of relying so much on what people these days tell you they believed.

But 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 a court.

Naprosto zato što to što smo bili poraženi sto godina pre no što smo i po?eli boj nije razlog da ne pokušamo da pobedimo.

There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life." "Doesn't

Women like for their men to be masterful and at the same time remote, if you can pull that trick. Make them feel helpless, especially when you know they can pick up a load of light'ud knots with no trouble. Never doubt yourself in front of them, and by no means tell them you don't understand them.

People in their right minds never take pride in their talents

Stephanie Crawford even told me once she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him? That shut her up for a while.

Maycomb drew us frequently up the street past the real property of Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. It was impossible to

The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets-

Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere

I tried to explain to Atticus that it wasn't so much what Francis said that had infuriated me as the way he had said it. "It was like he'd said snot-nose or somethin'.

I was taught never to take advantage of anybody who was less fortunate than myself, whether he be less fortunate in brains, wealth, or social position; it meant anybody, not just Negroes.

Mr. Tate blinked again, as if something had suddenly been made plain to him. Then he turned his head and looked around at Tom Robinson. As if by instinct, Tom Robinson raised his head. Something had been made plain to Atticus also, and it brought him to his feet. "Sheriff, please repeat what you said." "It was her right eye

You are too young to understand it,' she said, 'but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is more dangerous than a whiskey bottle...

Dill and Jem emerged from a brief huddle: "If you stay you've got to do what we tell you," Dill warned. "We-ll," I said, "who's so high and mighty all of a sudden?" "If you don't say you'll do what we tell you, we ain't gonna tell you anything," Dill continued.

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." — Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

Just about that time, Jean Louise's brother dropped dead in his tracks one day, and after the nightmare of that was over, Atticus, who had always thought of leaving his practice to his son, looked around for another young man. It was natural for him to engage Henry, and in due course Henry became Atticus's legman, his eyes, and his hands. Henry had always respected Atticus Finch; soon it melded to affection and Henry regarded him as a father.

Walter looked as if he had been raised on fish food: his eyes, as blue as Dill Harris's, were red-rimmed and watery.

Possession holds good against all comers except the true owner.

When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness.

Atticus said: "Sister, when you stop to think about it, our generation's practically the first in the Finch family not to marry its cousins. Would you say the Finches have an Incestuous Streak?" Aunty said no, that's where we got our small hands and feet.

they've never learned to live in this one

I mean it takes a certain kind of maturity to live in the South these days. You don't have it yet, but you have a shadow of the beginnings of it. You haven't the humbleness of mind- I thought the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom. It's the same thing. Humility.

What do you want me to do, go shout from the housetops that I am Henry Clinton and I'm here to tell you you're all wet?