Quotes from Harper Lee

For the life of me, I did not understand how he[Atticus] could sit there in cold blood and read a newspaper when his only son stood an excellent chance of being murdered with a Confederate Army relic.

She was born in the Objective case.

Had she insight, could she have pierced the barriers of her highly selective, insular world, she may have discovered that all her life she had been with a visual defect which had gone unnoticed and neglected by herself and by those closest to her: she was born color blind.

I had never thought about it, but summer was Dill by the fishpool smoking string, Dill's eyes alive with complicated plans to make Boo Radley emerge; summer was the swiftness with which Dill would reach up and kiss me when Jem was not looking, the longings we sometimes felt each other feel. With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable

But things are always better in the morning.

So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process.

but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down...

They're real strong magic, they make you have good luck. Not like fried chicken when you're not lookin' for it, but things like long life n' good health, n' passin' six weeks tests...these are real valuable to somebody.

Ladies pick funny things to be proud of.

She was the bravest person I ever knew.

About your writing with you left hand, are you ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell? I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other. One hand good as the other.

Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenet I absorbed with my baby-food.

Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time. Atticus said no, it wasn't that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts.

We're so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we've got men like Atticus to go for us.

hold your head high and keep those fists down - Atticus Finch

Volevo che tu imparassi una cosa da lei: volevo che tu vedessi che cosa è il vero coraggio, tu che credi che sia rappresentato da un uomo col fucile in mano. Aver coraggio significa sapere di essere sconfitti prima ancora di cominciare, e cominciare egualmente e arrivare fino in fondo, qualsiasi cosa succeda. È raro vincere, in questi casi, ma qualche volta si vince.

I do my best to love everybody...I'm hard put,sometimes- baby,its never an insult o be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is,it doesn't hurt you.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was.

Havin' a gun around's an invitation to somebody to shoot you.

Scout: Why are you entrusting us your deepest secret? Mr. Raymond: Because you're children and you can understand it.

Blind, that's what I am. I never opened my eyes. I never thought to look into people's hearts, I looked only in their faces.

Whatever she says to you, it's your job not to let her make you mad.

She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.