Atticus Being A Mockingbird Quotes:

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 faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.

- Harper Lee

topic: Children, Sake, Adults, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

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

source: To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 23 (1960)

topic: Black And White, Men, Racism, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.

- Harper Lee

topic: Jobs, Father, Men, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird, Atticus Being A Mockingbird

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

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

topic: Children, Tkam, Attention, Kill A Mockingbird Novel, Bad Language

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

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

topic: Children, Character, Animal, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird

The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.

- Harper Lee

topic: Men, Squares, Color, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

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

topic: Integrity, Believe, Reality, Jury, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

Jen and I were accustomed to our father's last-will-and-testament diction, and were at times free to interrupt Atticus for a translation when it was beyond our understanding.

- Harper Lee

topic: Father, Understanding, Diction, Wills And Testaments, Atticus Being A Mockingbird

I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. Scout

- Harper Lee

topic: Years, Born, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird

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

topic: Home, Fighting, Yankees, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird, Kill A Mockingbird Novel

Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open.

- Harper Lee

topic: Air, Way, Clear, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird, Kill A Mockingbird Novel

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 the court.

- Harper Lee

source: To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

topic: Country, Stupid, College, Stupid Men, Atticus Being A Mockingbird

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

- Harper Lee

topic: Winning, Sometimes, Mockingbird, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird

Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.

- Harper Lee

topic: Sweet, Naps, Sweat, Hotter, Nightfall

Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.

- Harper Lee

topic: People, Mad, Come Up, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird

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.

- Harper Lee

topic: Real, Gun, Men, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.

- Harper Lee

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

topic: Hurt, Thinking, Names, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable, Kill A Mockingbird Novel

That proves something- that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.

- Harper Lee

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

topic: Animal, Tkam, Gang, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.

- Harper Lee

source: Harold Bloom, Harper Lee (2010). “Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.81, Infobase Publishing

topic: Positivity, Sunshine, Views, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

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

- Harper Lee

source: To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 11 (1960)

topic: Honesty, Powerful, Integrity, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

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

topic: Dad, Father, War, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

Atticus, he was real nice." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.

- Harper Lee

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

topic: Real, Nice, People, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

Summer, and he watches his children's heart break. Autumn again and Boo's children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

- Harper Lee

topic: Summer, Children, Heart, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird, Walking Shoes

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

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

topic: Inspirational, Courage, Perseverance, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Memorable

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

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

topic: God, Men, Hands, Jem And Scout, Whisky

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

- Harper Lee

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

topic: Winning, Years, Tkam, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Novel

Some negroes lie, some are immoral, some negro men are not be trusted around women - black and white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.

- Harper Lee

topic: Lying, Black And White, Men, Atticus Being A Mockingbird, Tkam

I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society.

- Harper Lee

source: Horton Foote, Harper Lee (1964). “The screenplay of To kill a mockingbird”

topic: Broken, Gentleman, Guilt, Atticus Being A Mockingbird

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

- Harper Lee

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

topic: Tkam, People, Jem And Scout, Kill A Mockingbird Mockingbird, Atticus Being A Mockingbird