To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.

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

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

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

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

They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another

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

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

Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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

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.

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, that white man is trash

People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.

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.

With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.

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 fightin' with your head for a change.

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.

Pass the damn ham, please.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.

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.

There are just some kind of men - 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.

Things are always better in the morning.

It's not time to worry yet

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'.

There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.

Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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

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

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

We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe- some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others- some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of men.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.

Things are never as bad as they seem.

As a reader I loathe introductions...Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity.

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.

Hey Boo.

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.

That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?

Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

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. 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, that white man is trash.

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

Atticus sat looking at the floor for a long time. Finally he raised his head. Scout, he said, Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him and kissed him with all my might. Yes sir, I understand, I reassured him. Mr. Tate was right.Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. What do you mean?Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?Atticus put his face in my hair and rubbed it. When he got up and walked across the porch into the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. Thank you for my children, Arthur. he said.