Who is Harper Lee
Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ which portrays the later years of the Finch family. In 1959, Harper Lee finished the manuscript for her Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. Soon after, she helped fellow writer and friend Truman Capote compose an article for The New Yorker which would evolve into his nonfiction masterpiece, In Cold Blood.
In July 2015, Lee published her second novel, Go Set a Watchman, which was written before To Kill a Mockingbird and portrays the later lives of the characters from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
Harper Lee Quotes
1. 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.
2. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
3. 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.
4. People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
5. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
6. Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.
7. I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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
12. People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
16. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.
21. 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.
22. Things are always better in the morning.
23. We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.
24. I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.
Scout
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. Pass the damn ham, please.
28. 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.
29. It’s not time to worry yet
30. 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.
31. Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.
32. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’.
33. Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?
34. They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again and when they do it — seems that only the children weep. Good night.
35. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
36. Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.
37. 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.
38. Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself…It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.
39. 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.
40. As a reader I loathe introductions…Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity.
41. 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.
42. Things are never as bad as they seem.
43. First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view–until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
44. That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?
45. There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.
46. 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.
47. Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.
51. Try fighting with your head for a change…
it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.
52. As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he’ll look for his lessons.
53. I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown,’ said Dill.
Jem and I stopped in our tracks.
Yes sir, a clown,’ he said. ‘There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.’
You got it backwards, Dill,’ said Jem. ‘Clowns are sad, it’s folks that laugh at them.’
Well I’m gonna be a new kind of clown. I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.
54. Remember this also: it’s always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years ago. It is hard to see what we are. If you can master that trick, you’ll get along.
55. As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, ‘I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.
56. 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.
57. I don’t want to hear any words like that while I’m here. Scout, you’ll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. You want to grow up to be a lady, don’t you?’
I said not particularly.
58. 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.
59. Daylight…In my mind, the night faded. It was daytime and the neighborhood was busy. Miss Stephenie Crawford crossed the street to tell the latest to Miss Rachel. Miss Maudie bent over the azaleas.
It was summertime, and two children scampered down the sidewalk toward a man approaching in the distance. The man waved, and the children raced each other to him. It was still summertime, and the children came closer. A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishingpole behind him. A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips. Summertime, and his children played in the front yeard with their friend, enacting a strange little drama of their own invention.
It was fall and his children fought ont he sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose’s. The boy helped his sister to her feet and they made their way home. Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day’s woe’s and triymph’s on their face. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled apprehensive.
Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and show a dog.
Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break.
Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him.
60. A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.
