Harper Lee quotes - page 5

He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning. (Harper Lee)
Scout, I´m telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home - I declare to the Lord you´re gettin´ more like a girl every day!” With that, I had no option but to join them. View quote
Harper Lee
I try to give'em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. View quote
Harper Lee
In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one's mind incapable of definite purpose. View quote
Harper Lee
In other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama. View quote
Harper Lee
Long ago, in a burst of friendliness, Aunty and Uncle Jimmy produced a son named Henry... View quote
Harper Lee
Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill. View quote
Harper Lee
...reasonable men, they went because we were there. There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads-they couldn't be fair if they tried. View quote
Harper Lee
The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me - he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn't see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn't? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts. View quote
Harper Lee
Well if you don't want me to grow up talkin‘ that way, why do you send me to school? View quote
Harper Lee
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)
Each child was supposed to clip an item from a newspaper, absorb its contents, and reveal them to the class. This practice allegedly overcame a variety of evils: standing in front of his fellows encouraged good posture and gave a child poise; delivering a short talk made him word-conscious; learning his current event strengthened his memory; being singled out made him more than ever anxious to return to the Group. View quote
Harper Lee
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. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J. P. court in the land, or this honourable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal. View quote
Harper Lee
Mount Everest: throughout my early life, she was cold and there. View quote
Harper Lee
That's because you can't hold something in your mind but a little while, said Jem. It's different with grown folks, we. View quote
Harper Lee
Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. View quote
Harper Lee
...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. View quote
Harper Lee
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. View quote
Harper Lee
Cry about the simple hell people give other people- without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people too. View quote
Harper Lee
Atticus---"... said Jem bleakly. "How could they do it, how could they?" "I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before & they did it tonight & they'll do it again & when they do it--- seems that only children weep. View quote
Harper Lee
I can't beat you, I can't join you. (Harper Lee)
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. View quote
Harper Lee
I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. View quote
Harper Lee
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. View quote
Harper Lee
You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here. View quote
Harper Lee