100+ Powerful To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes That Inspire & Provoke Thought

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."

"Children are children, but they ain't blind."

"Scout, try fighting with your head for a change."

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

"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."

"People in their right minds never take pride in their talents."

"Atticus, he was real nice," and Atticus replies, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

"The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience."

"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."

"Negroes don’t have to salute us because we’re white. They’re people too."

"I think it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

"Before I can live with other folks, I’ve got to live with myself."

"I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes—baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name."

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win."

"The courtroom is the one place where a man ought to get a fair shake."

"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."

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

"If I didn’t, I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again."

"Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father."

"It is not necessary to be a hero to stand up for what is right."

"A man should be judged by his actions, not the color of his skin."

"Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching."

"As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life…"

"There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried."

"In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins."

"She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man."

"You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men."

"The witnesses for the state have presented themselves to you gentlemen… confident that you, gentlemen, would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings…"

"Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed."

"They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep."

"It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived."

"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible."

"Racism is man’s gravest threat to man—the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason."

"The destruction of the human spirit by the denial of human dignity has no justification."

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

"Atticus was right. One time he said that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them."

"People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for."

"We can’t blame anybody but ourselves."

"If your head’s bloody, it hurts just as much whether you’re a rich man or a poor man."

"Real courage is... when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

"Folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It bothers ‘em."

"She’s just a woman caught in a trap laid by society."

"You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, though I contend we all do have our friends."

"She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man."

"Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be peace."

"Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another."

"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."

"When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it."

"You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

"The best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open."

"If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks."

"Don’t say n*****, Scout. That’s common."

"I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes."

"Before Jem went to sleep at night, he would lay his head on my lap and say, 'Tell me something, Scout.'"

"I told you not to use that word. It’s ugly."

"You just hold your head high and keep those fists down."

"You aren’t old enough to understand some things yet, but you will."

"The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience."

"In the name of God, do your duty."

"The one place where a man ought to get a fair shake is in a courtroom."

"A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up."

"The jury system is no ideal to me—it is a living, working reality."

"There’s nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll exploit a Negro’s ignorance."

"The law is not a living thing; it’s a code written by men and interpreted by men."

"Tom Robinson’s case is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience."

"Some cases are won before they’re ever argued."

"The truth is usually what we make of it."

"Equal justice under law is not just a slogan—it’s a promise."

"Justice delayed is justice denied."

"The scales of justice are often tipped by prejudice rather than truth."

"I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches."

"You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!"

"I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying it’s why."

"She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she? But don’t you fret, we’re going to fix everything all right."

"Women in the South have it rough—they’re expected to be angels and cooks and mothers all at once."

"Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman."

"I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me."

"Calpurnia’s not leaving this house until she wants to."

"You’re shaming me before all these people!"

"Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my being a girl."

"I remember when my grandmother boxed my ears for saying ‘damn.’"

"Society builds cages for women far more than it does for men."

"The Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations."

"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."

"Walter Cunningham’s a good man, but his entailments almost wrecked the farm."

"The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back."

"We’re paying the highest tribute we can pay a man—we trust him to do right."

"The Finches were related to nearly everybody in town."

"Social standing means nothing if you lack decency."

"Poor folks have pride too."

"No truer words have ever been spoken than ‘the poverty of the mind is worse than the poverty of the pocket.’"

"The caste system in Maycomb was well entrenched."

"He was born good, but circumstances made him mean."

"Respect isn’t earned by wealth, but by character."

"I learned to read at an early age, and reading has become a habit."

"School hours meant nothing to me."

"The Dewey Decimal System is the foundation of modern library science."

"Miss Caroline told me to stop reading with my father. I told her I’d rather go to jail."

"The biggest lesson I ever learned wasn’t in school—it was watching Atticus."

"Teaching is a profession of patience and persistence."

"Children learn faster than adults, but they forget easier too."

"True education fosters empathy, not memorization."

"Books are instruments of freedom."

"The classroom can’t teach what life teaches."

"Knowledge without understanding is useless."

"The greatest teacher is experience."

"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

"The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience."

"After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a dinner table, then I could be a lady anywhere."

"We were surprised when Dill cried. We thought it was just us."

"He was real nice," said Scout. “Most people are,” Atticus replied.

"Even in the darkest hour, kindness finds a way."

"Redemption comes not from being perfect, but from trying."

"Humanity survives because someone still believes in doing right."

"Hope is walking forward when the path behind is clearer."

"The world is hard, but not beyond repair."

"Every act of decency is a rebellion against despair."

"To protect the innocent is the highest form of love."