TKaM Quotes

"But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home."

Atticus Finch

"But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing..."

Atticus Finch

"I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody... I am hard put, sometimes - baby, 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."

Atticus Finch

"I wanted you to see something about her - 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 you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

Atticus Finch

"I'd hoped to get through life without a case of this kind."

Atticus Finch

"Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told...And you know what the truth is."

Atticus Finch

"Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every Mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know - doesn't say much for them, does it?"

Atticus Finch

"So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason. You saw the same thing that night in front of the jail."

Atticus Finch

"There is a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it's dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead."

Heck Tate

"Your fancy airs don't come to nothin' - your ma'amin' and Miss Mayellerin' don't come to nothin', Mr. Finch -"

Mayella Ewell

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

Reverend Sykes

"Hey, Boo,"

Scout Finch

"I found myself believing him in spite of his protesting too much. He seemed to be a respectable Negro, and a respectable Negro would never go up into somebody's yard of his own volition."

Scout Finch

"Yes sir, I understand...Mr. Tate was right." "What do you mean?" "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a Mockingbird, wouldn't it?"

Scout Finch Atticus Finch Scout Finch

"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 United States or the humblest J. P. Court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal."

Atticus Finch

"Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man."

Atticus Finch

I didn't know how you were going to do it...but from now on I'll never worry about what will become of you, son, you'll always have an idea."

Atticus Finch To Jem Snowman

"First of all...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----"

Atticus Finch To scout About miss Caroline, it was honest mistake of her for talking money with Cunningham

"...folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do. It aggravates 'em. You're 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."

Calpurnia

"Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house's yo' comp'ny, and don't you let me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so high and mighty!"

Calpurnia

"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."

Jem Finch

"There's four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there is the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes."

Jem Finch

"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."

Miss Maudie

"The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord's kindness am I."

Miss Maudie Atkinson

"You little folks won't tell on me now, will you? It'd ruin my reputation if you did."

Mr. Raymond

"Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of em -" "You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?"

Tom Robinson Mr. Gilmer