Harper Lee: Trending quotes (page 3)

“Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.”

“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.”

“As a reader I loathe introductions… Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity.”

“That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?”

“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.”

“There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.”

“Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.”

“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.”

“Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it, hotheadedness isn't.”

“Don’t talk like that, Dill,” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.”

“I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?”

“The way you tell it, it is.”

“Try fighting with your head for a change…
it's a good one, even if it does resist learning.”

“[T]he time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right”

“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.”

“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.”

“I'm little but I'm old.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.”

“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.”