Book of Quotes

To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

- "The misery of that house began many years before Jem and I were born. The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb."

- "The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb's ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only."

- "According to neighborhood legend, when the younger Radley boy was in his teens he became acquainted with some of the Cunninghams from Old Sarum, an enormous and confusing tribe domiciled in the northern part of the county, and they formed the nearest thing to a gang ever seen in Maycomb."

- "If the judge released Arthur,Mr. Radley's would see to it that Arthur gave no further trouble. Knowing that Mr. Radley's word was his bond, the judge was glad to do so."

- "The doors of the Radley house were closed on all weekdays as well as Sundays, and Mr. Radley's boy was not seen again for fifteen years."

- "Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.

Mrs. Radley ran screaming into the street that Arthur was killing them all, but when the sheriff arrived he found Boo still sitting in the livingroom, cutting up the Tribune."

- "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 f the time. Atticus said no, it wasn't that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts."

- "There goes the meanest man ever God blew breath into,' murmured Calpurnia, and she spt meditatively into the yard."

- "The neighborhood thought when Mr. Radru went under Boo would come out, but it had another thing coming: Boo's elder brother returned from Pensacola and took Mr. Radley's place."

- "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time."

- "A tiny, almost invisible movement, and the house [Radley house] was still."

- "Little Chuck Little got to his feet, 'Let him go, ma'am,' he said. 'He's a mean one, a hard-down mean one. He's liable to start somethin', and there's some little folks around here."

- "Watch your step, Burris,' he said. 'I'd soon's kill you as look at you. Now go home."

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

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

- "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."

- "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."

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

- "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."

- "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."

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

- "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."

- "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."

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

- "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."

- "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."

- "Pass the damn ham, please."

- "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."

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

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

- "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."

- "It's not time to worry yet"

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

★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*

Sorry that this is a little short. I'm attempting to type this on my phone and it is taking forever. This is an hour worth of writing. The next few will be short as well since while my computer is broken and I'm getting a new one I will be typing on my phone.

Anyways, who else is excited for the sequel of To Kill a Mockingbird coming out in July. Its about time for Go Set a Watchman to come out.

~ Alexis