Quotes from Harper Lee

Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

She was extravagant with her pity, and complacent in her snug world.

People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for, and they have a right to subject their children to it.

It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

One maniac and millions of German folks. Looked to me like they'd shut Hitler in a pen instead of letting him shut them up.

Le courage, c'est savoir que tu pars battu, mais d'agir quand même sans s'arrêter

Because you're children and you can understand it.

The scholastic level of that school down the street, Atticus, couldn't be any lower and you know it.

You see, don't you," said Aunt Alexandra, "what comes of things like this. Don't say I haven't told you.

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.

I ain't never seen any jury decide in favor of a coloured man over a white man..

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, that white man is trash.

quería que vieses lo que es la verdadera bravura, en vez de hacerte la idea de que la bravura la encarna un hombre con un arma en la mano. Uno es valiente cuando, sabiendo que ha perdido ya antes de empezar, empieza a pesar de todo y sigue hasta el final pase lo que pase. Uno vence raras veces, pero alguna vez vence

Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.

but after years of tactical study Jean Louise knew her enemy. Although she could rout her, Jean Louise had not yet learned how to repair the enemy's damage.

The only thing in America that is still unique in this tired world is that a man can go as far as his brains will take him or he can go to hell if he wants to, but it won't be that way much longer.

be', il vecchio Adolf Hitler ha dato addosso agli ebrei, li ha messi in prigione, gli ha portato via tutto e non li ha lasciati uscire dal paese, e poi ha lavato tutti i deboli di nente... Lavato i deboli di mente?... Sissignora, penso che fosse perché non capivano di doversi lavare, forse un debole di mente non sa tenersi pulito.

She rubbed salt into it: I'm thoughtless, all right. Selfish, self-willed, I eat too much, and I feel like the Book of Common Prayer. Lord forgive me for not doing what I should have done and for doing what I shouldn't have done—oh hell.

Son, I can't tell what you're going to be—an engineer, a lawyer, or a portrait painter. You've perpetrated a near libel here in the front yard. We've got to disguise this fellow.

There were six bedrooms upstairs, four for the eight female children, one for Welcome Finch, the sole son, and one for visiting relatives. Simple enough; but the daughters' rooms could be reached only by one staircase, Welcome's room and the guestroom only by another. The Daughters' Staircase was in the ground-floor bedroom of their parents, so Simon always knew the hours of his daughters' nocturnal comings and goings.

Tom [Robinson] era morto nell'attimo stesso in cui Mayella Ewell aveva aperto la bocca e urlato.

he found something so intensely feminine about her that he fell in love. She was easy to look at and easy to be with most of the time, but she was in no sense of the word an easy person. She was afflicted with a restlessness of spirit he could not guess at, but he knew she was the one for him. He would protect her; he would marry her.

cómo puedes vivir con tu conciencia? —Es relativamente fácil. Simplemente, a veces no voto según mis convicciones, eso es todo. —Hank

A medida que crezcas, verás a los blancos estafando a los negros, todos los días de tu vida, pero te diré una cosa, y no la olvides: siempre que un hombre blanco abusa de un negro, no importa quién sea, ni cuán rico sea, ni cuán distinguida haya sido la familia de que procede, ese hombre blanco es basura.