A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.
--Harper Lee
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.'
--Harper Lee
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.
--Harper Lee
But 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 the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honourable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal.
--Harper Lee
Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know- doesn't say much for them, does it?
--Harper Lee
Folks don't like to have somebody around knowin' 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.
--Harper Lee
Havin' a gun around's an invitation to somebody to shoot you.
--Harper Lee
I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.
--Harper Lee
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 see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
--Harper Lee
I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.
--Harper Lee
I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
--Harper Lee
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.
--Harper Lee
Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.
--Harper Lee
Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
--Harper Lee
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.
--Harper Lee
Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street.
--Harper Lee
People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
--Harper Lee
People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.
--Harper Lee
She was born in the Objective case.
--Harper Lee
She's an old lady and she's ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it's your job not to let her make you mad.
--Harper Lee
Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of (another)... 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.
--Harper Lee
The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.
--Harper Lee
The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.
--Harper Lee
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
--Harper Lee
The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets-
--Harper Lee
There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us.
--Harper Lee
There's just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to 'em. Even then, they ain't worth the bullet it takes to shoot 'em.
--Harper Lee
Things are always better in the morning.
--Harper Lee
Things are never as bad as they seem.
--Harper Lee
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
--Harper Lee
When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, an evasion simply muddles 'em.
--Harper Lee
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.
--Harper Lee
Found 32 occurence(s) in 52,042 quotation(s).