"That proves something- that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human."
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Harper Lee quotes (page 5 of 10)
200 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
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"You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here."
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"Calpurnia evidently remembered a rainy Sunday when we were both fatherless and teacherless. Let to its own devices, the class tied Eunice Ann Simpson to a chair and placed her in the furnace room. We forgot her, trooped upstairs to church, and were listening quietly to the sermon when a dreadful banging issued from the radiator pipes, persisting until someone investigated and brought forth Eunice Ann saying she didn't want to play Shadrach any more - Jem Finch said she wouldn't get burnt if she had enough faith, but it was hot down there."
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"So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children."
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"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."
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"You can choose your friends, but you sho' can't choose your family."
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"Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand."
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"It's better to be silent than to be a fool."
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"I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement."
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"I'm still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries."
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"People who write for reward by way of recognition or monetary gain don't know what they're doing. They're in the category of those who write; they are not writers. Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward. Writing is selfish and contradictory in its terms. First of all, you're writing for an audience of one, you must please the one person you're writing for. Yourself."
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"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."
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"Rest assured, as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood."
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"Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases."
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"I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn't realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."
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"But sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down."
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"That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?"
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"Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful. “How do you know a match don't hurt him?” “Turtles can't feel, stupid,” said Jem. “Where you ever a turtle, huh?"
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