Harper Lee citations

Page 4

“Scout Finch, juvenile desperado, hellraiser extraordinary.”

“Avec lui, la vie était banale, sans lui, elle devenait insupportable.”

“Mais ce pays met en application l’idée que tous les hommes naissent égaux dans une institution humaine qui fait du pauvre l’égal d’un Rockefeller, du crétin l’égal d’un Einstein,
et de l’ignorant l’égal de n’importe quel directeur de lycée. Cette institution, messieurs les jurés, c’est le tribunal.”

“Le courage, c’est savoir que tu pars battu, mais d’agir quand même sans s’arrêter”

“Avant de vivre en paix avec les autres, je dois vivre en paix avec moi-même. La seule chose qui ne doive pas céder à la loi de la majorité est la conscience de l’individu.”

“Ce n’est pas parce qu’on est battu d’avance qu’il ne faut pas essayer de gagner.”

“Le préjugé - un terme péjoratif - et la foi - un terme noble - ont quelque chose en commun : ils commencent tous les deux où la raison s'arrête.”

“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.”

“I'm Charles Baker Harris… I can read”

“Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of settling slowly to the bottom of the ocean.”

“Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”

“Finders were keepers unless title was proven.”

“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”

“Don’t push her. Let her go at her own speed. Push her and every mule in the county’d be easier to live with.”

“Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases.”

“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.”

“I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

“I was taught never to take advantage of anybody who was less fortunate than myself, whether he be less fortunate in brains, wealth, or social position; it meant anybody…”

“In other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama”

“Long ago, in a burst of friendliness, Aunty and Uncle Jimmy produced a son named Henry…”

“You can pet him, Mr. Arthur. He's asleep…”

“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of another.”

“I guess it’s like an airplane: they’re the drag and we’re the thrust, together we make the thing fly. Too much of us and we’re nose-heavy, too much of them and we’re tail-heavy—it’s a matter of balance.”

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

“When stalking one’s prey, it is best to take one’s time. Say nothing, and as sure as eggs he will become curious and emerge.”

“I just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin' I can do it.”

“Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street.”

“Go away, the old buildings said. There is no place for you here. You are not wanted. We have secrets.”

“A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. 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?”

“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.”

“What does a bigot do when he meets someone who challenges his opinions? He doesn’t give. He stays rigid. Doesn’t even try to listen, just lashes out.”

“I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society.”

“I can't beat you, I can't join you.”

“That proves something- that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.”

“You damn morphodite, I'll kill you!”

“It's better to be silent than to be a fool.”