Harper Lee

“Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them”

“No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change... it's a good one, even if it does not resist learning.”

“That's what I thought, too,' he said at last, 'when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. 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.”

“No jury in this part of the world's going to say, "We think you're guilty, but not very," on a charge like that. It was either straight acquittal or nothing.”

“The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there.”

“Atticus sometimes said that one way to tell whether a witness was lying or telling the truth was to listen rather than watch.”

“Jem scooped up an armful of dirt, patted it into a mound on which he added another load, and another until he had constructed a torso. "Jem, I ain't never heard of a nigger snowman," I said.”

“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.”

“Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience. Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.”

“Atticus,' zei ik op een avond, 'wat is nou precies een nikkervriend?''Scout,' zei Atticus, 'nikkervriend is alleen maar een van die termen die absoluut niets beduiden - zoiets als snotneus. Ik kan het moeilijk uitleggen. Onwetende en minderwaardige mensen bezigen dat woord als ze denken dat je aan negers de voorkeur geeft boven henzelf. En er zijn ook mensen als wij toe gekomen om dat woord te gebruiken, als ze iemand op een gemene, ordinaire manier willen uitschelden.''Maar jij bént toch niet een echte nikkervriend, hè?''Dat ben ik zeker. Ik doe mijn best om van iedereen te houden ... Dat is soms een hele toer ... maar baby, het is nooit echt beledigend als iemand je uitscheldt voor iets. dat hij minderwaardig vindt. Dan blijkt alleen maar hoe zielig die ander is, en daarom is het helemaal niet kwetsend.”

“Da bih mogao zivjeti sa drugima, moram prvo zivjeti sam sa sobom. Jedina stvar koja ne pripada pod pravila vecine jeste covjekova savjest.”

“Hrabrost je kad znas da si potucen i prije no sto si krenuo u borbu, ali ti ipak kreces i uprkos svemu stremis cilju. Rijetko kad pobjedjujes ali nekad pobijedis.”

“Maybe he doesn't have anywhere to run off to...”

“The only way in which all men in America are equal, is in the courtroom - Atticus”

“We can't always have our druthers.”

“Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, I would have felt sorry for her. She was a pretty little thing.”

“I thought she was going to spit in it, which was the only reason anybody in Maycomb held out his hand: it was a time-honored method of sealing oral contracts. Wondering what bargain we had made, I turned to the class for an answer, but the class looked back at me in puzzlement.”

“Of all days Sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes.”

“Thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment. Routine contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin chinaberry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas based on the works of Oliver Optic, Victor Appleton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. (...) Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.”

“We're the safest folks in the world," said Miss Maudie. "We're so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we've got men like Atticus to go for us.”

“Until I feared I would loose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

“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 JP 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 levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal”

“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. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.”

“Bırakalım bu kez ölüyü ölü gömsün Bay Finch... bırakın ölüyü ölüler gömsün.”

“Yetişkinlerin bakışlarından nefret ediyorum. İnsan kendini suçlu hissediyor.”

“She was the bravest person I ever knew.”

“Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty.”

“satu hal yang tidak tunduk pada mayoritas adalah nurani seseorang”

“İyi biri olarak doğduğumu ama her yıl kötüleştiğimi söylüyordu. Duygularımı incitiyordu. Atticus'a sorduğumda 'ailede yeterince güneş ışığı var, böyle iyisin' dedi.”

“Sıfatları çıkarırsan gerçekler kalır.”

“I came to the conclusion that people were just peculiar, I withdrew from them, and never thought about them until I was forced to.”

“I must have slept a long time, for when I was punched awake the room was dim with the light of the setting moon. "Move over, Scout." "He thought he had to." I mumbled. "Don't stay mad with him." Dill got in bed beside me. "I ain't," he said. "I just wanted to sleep with you.”

“I don't see why I have to when he doesn't. Then listen.”

“When the three of us came to her house, Atticus would sweep off his hat, wave gallantly to her and say, “Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening.” I never heard Atticus say like a picture of what. He would tell her the courthouse news, and would say he hoped with all his heart she’d have a good day tomorrow. He would return his hat to his head, swing me to his shoulders in her very presence, and we would go home in the twilight. 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.”

“Scout: Why are you entrusting us your deepest secret?Mr. Raymond: Because you’re children and you can understand it.”

“Jem: I’ve thought about it a lot lately and I’ve got it figured out. There’s four kinds of folks in Maycomb County. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes. The thing about it is, our kind of folks don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks.Scout: Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.Jem: That’s what I thought, too. When I was your age. If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. 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.”

“Kau tidak akan bisa memahami seseorang sebelum kau melihat segala sesuatu dari sudut pandangnya”

“The apple does not fall far from the tree.”

“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.”

“It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s what it is ... Like somethin’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like”

“You aren't thin-hided, it just makes you sick, doesn't it?”

“Well how do you know we ain’t Negroes?”“Uncle Jack Finch says we really don’t know. He says as far as he can trace back the Finches we ain’t, but for all he knows we mighta come straight out of Ethiopia durin’ the Old Testament.”“Well if we came out durin’ the Old Testament it’s too long ago to matter.”“That’s what I thought,” said Jem, “but around here once you have a drop of Negro blood, that makes you all black.”

“Jack: Atticus, you’ve never laid a hand on her.Atticus: I admit that. So far I've been able to get by with threats. Jack, she minds me as well as she can. Doesn't come up to scratch half the time, but she tries.Jack: That's not the answer.Atticus: No, the answer is she knows I know she tries. That's what makes the difference.”

“I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was.”

“There’s 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, can’t you even try to see it my way? You’ve got children of your own, but I’m older than you. When mine are grown I’ll be an old man if I’m still around, but right now I’m—if they don’t trust me they won’t trust anybody. Jem and Scout know what happened. If they hear of me saying downtown something different happened—Heck, I won’t have them any more. I can’t live one way in town and another way in my home.”

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I don’t want my boy starting out with something like this over his head. Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open. Let the county come and bring sandwiches. I don’t want him growing up with a whisper about him, I don’t want anybody saying, ‘Jem Finch… his daddy paid a mint to get him out of that.”

“Jem’s not quite thirteen… no, he’s already thirteen—I can’t remember. Anyway, it’ll come before county court.”

“His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. “Hey, Boo,” I said.”

“Why, if we followed our feelings all the time we’d be like cats chasin‘ their tails.”