Harper Lee Quotes

You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here.

Harper Lee

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Quotes to Explore

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • Like
  • More
  • Knowing

• he said if enough people-a stadium full, maybe-were to concentrate on one thing, such as setting a tree afire in the woods, that the tree would ignite of its own accord. I toyed with the idea of asking everyone below to concentrate on setting Tom Robinson free, but

  

  Harper Lee
  • People
  • Free
  • Tree

• 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.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Live
  • Myself
  • Conscience

• From now on it’ll be everybody less one-

  

  Harper Lee

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • Think
  • Kind
  • Just

• That’s because you can’t hold something in your mind but a little while, said Jem. It’s different with grown folks, we-

  

  Harper Lee
  • Different
  • Mind

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • Person
  • Rule
  • Conscience

• Well, they're Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn't dream of interrupting you at golf.

  

  Harper Lee
  • People
  • Home
  • Dream

• And it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don't know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit. Of course he shouldn't, but he'll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?

  

  Harper Lee
  • Children
  • Bad
  • Father

• Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Wise
  • Advice
  • Profit

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • Loved
  • Read
  • Feared

• Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Remember

• The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

  

  Harper Lee
  • World
  • Book
  • Think

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • People
  • Up
  • Why

• As I inched sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something. Out of what I knew not, yet I did not believe that twelve years of unrelieved boredom was exactly what the state had in mind for me.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Believe
  • Mind
  • School

• I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Success
  • Enough
  • Encouragement

• 'An' they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'cause they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice...' 'Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.'

  

  Harper Lee
  • People
  • Real
  • Done

• 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
  • Man
  • Father
  • Thought

• When the new wore off his grandfather’s watch, and carrying it became a day’s burdensome task, Jem no longer felt the necessity of ascertaining the hour every five minutes.

  

  Harper Lee

• 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
  • Real
  • Know
  • Courage

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

  

  Harper Lee
  • Never
  • View
  • Point Of View

• 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
  • Up
  • Believe
  • Men

• Apparently, Mayella's recital had given her confidence, but it was not her father's brash kind: there was something stealthy about hers, like a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Father
  • Confidence
  • Cat

• You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here.

  

  Harper Lee
  • Start
  • Books
  • Really