Kill A Mockingbird Novel Quotes

• Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

  Harper Lee

  Inspirational, Courage, Perseverance

  "To Kill a Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, community.sparknotes.com. July 11, 1960.

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  People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

  Harper Lee

  Powerful, Tkam, People

  Harper Lee (1970). “To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.46, Dramatic Publishing

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• Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.

  Harper Lee

  Flower, Good Luck, Two

  Harold Bloom, Harper Lee (2010). “Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.36, Infobase Publishing

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• As you grow older, 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, he is trash.

  Harper Lee

  Respect, Black And White, Men

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 23 (1960)

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• You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change...

  Harper Lee

  Powerful, Trying, Ems

  "To Kill A Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, July 11, 1960.

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• You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.

  Harper Lee

  Silly, Tkam, Looks

  Harper Lee (2014). “To Kill A Mockingbird”, p.182, Random House

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• So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children.

  Harper Lee

  Children, Character, Animal

  "To Kill a Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, 1962.

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• I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.

  Harper Lee

  Tkam, Laughing, Kind

  Harper Lee (2014). “To Kill A Mockingbird”, p.176, Random House

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• Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it.

  Harper Lee

  Children, Tkam, Attention

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.

  Harper Lee

  Winning, Years, Tkam

  Harper Lee (1970). “To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.20, Dramatic Publishing

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• It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

  Harper Lee

  Dad, War, Father

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

  Harper Lee

  Thinking, Differences, Tkam

  Harold Bloom, Harper Lee (2010). “Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.44, Infobase Publishing

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• Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

  Harper Lee

  Tkam, Adjectives, Jem And Scout

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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

  Harper Lee

  Honesty, Powerful, Integrity

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 11 (1960)

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• Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

  Harper Lee

  Gratitude, Appreciation, Powerful

  Harper Lee (2014). “To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.14, Harper Collins

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• I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system - that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.

  Harper Lee

  Integrity, Believe, Reality

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

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• I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.

  Harper Lee

  Integrity, Believe, Reality

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

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• This time we aren't fighting the Yankees, we're fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home.

  Harper Lee

  Home, Fighting, Yankees

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.

  Harper Lee

  Girl, Thinking, Skills

  Harper Lee (2014). “To Kill A Mockingbird”, p.96, Random House

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• When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em. No... you had the right answer this afternoon, but the wrong reasons. Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it. Hotheadedness isn’t.

  Harper Lee

  Children, Tkam, Sake

  "To Kill a Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, July 11, 1960.

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• 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? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.

  Harper Lee

  Thinking, Tkam, House

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• It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike -- in the second place, folks don't like to have someone around knowin' more than they do. It aggravates them. Your not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.

  Harper Lee

  Change, Mouths, Want

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• They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night.

  Harper Lee

  Good Night, Children, Tkam

  Harper Lee (2014). “To Kill A Mockingbird”, p.173, Random House

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• Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of another... There are just some kind of men who - 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.

  Harper Lee

  God, Men, Tkam

  "To Kill a Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, July 11, 1960.

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• Folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.

  Harper Lee

  Knowing, Literature, Mockingbird

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