Top 500 Harper Lee Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 10 of 10

451. “Jij bent kleurenblind, Jean Louise. Dat ben je altijd geweest en dat zul je altijd zijn. De enige verschillen die jij ziet tussen de ene mens en de andere zijn de verschillen in uiterlijk en intelligentie en karakter en dat soort dingen. Je bent nooit opgestookt om mensen als een ras te zien, en nu dat ras de brandende kwestie van deze tijd is, ben jij nog niet in staat om in rassen te denken. Jij ziet alleen mensen.”

— Harper Lee

452. “It ain’t honest but it’s mighty helpful to folks... but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live.”

— Harper Lee

453. “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.”

— Harper Lee

454. “We don’t write in the first grade, we print. You won’t learn to write until you’re in the third grade.” Calpurnia.”

— Harper Lee

455. “There was some skill involved in being a girl.”

— Harper Lee

456. “Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does.”

— Harper Lee

457. “When my brother Jem was 13, he had his arm badly broken at the elbow.”

— Harper Lee

458. “The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They.”

— Harper Lee

459. “They don’t usually drink on Sunday, they go to church most of the day .”

— Harper Lee

460. “As Kipling said, that’s another story...”

— Harper Lee

461. “Whatcha readin’?” I asked. Atticus turned the book over. “Something of Jem’s. Called The Gray Ghost.” I was suddenly awake. “Why’d you get that one?” “Honey, I don’t know. Just picked it up. One of the few things I haven’t read,” he said pointedly. “Read.”

— Harper Lee

462. “One of the elderly members of the class answered her: “He’s one of the Ewells, ma’am,” and I wondered if this explanation would be as unsuccessful as my attempt.”

— Harper Lee

463. “You never went to school and you do all right, so I’ll just stay home too. You can teach me like Grandaddy taught you ’n’ Uncle Jack.”

— Harper Lee

464. “It was customary for the town’s three churches – Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian – to unite and listen to one visiting minister, but occasionally when the churches could not agree on a preacher or his salary, each congregation held its own revival with an open invitation to all; sometimes, therefore, the populace was assured of three weeks’ spiritual reawakening. Revival time was a time of war:.”

— Harper Lee

465. “Women like for their men to be masterful and at the same time remote, if you can pull that trick. Make them feel helpless, especially when you know they can pick up a load of light’ud knots with no trouble. Never doubt yourself in front of them, and by no means tell them you don’t understand them.”

— Harper Lee

466. “This would not do, I mused, as the class proceeded with its sums. One maniac and millions of German folks. Looked to me like they’d shut Hitler in a pen instead of letting him shut them up. There was something else wrong.”

— Harper Lee

467. “Uno es valiente cuando, sabiendo que ha perdido ya antes de empezar, empieza a pesar de todo y sigue hasta el final, pase lo que pase.”

— Harper Lee

468. “There was no doubt about it: Alexandra Finch Hancock was imposing from any angle; her behind was no less uncompromising than her front.”

— Harper Lee

469. “Blood is a powerful thing, bachem, never forget that.”

— Harper Lee

470. “I know what you mean, boy... You aren’t thin-hided, it just makes you sick, doesn’t it?”

— Harper Lee

471. “Let’s go home, Scout. It’s been a long day. Open the door for me.”

— Harper Lee

472. “Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an‘ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home.”

— Harper Lee

473. “Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right;.”

— Harper Lee

474. “Atticus said no, it wasn’t that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts.”

— Harper Lee

475. “There was no point to say you were sorry if you weren’t.”

— Harper Lee

476. “The son – deceased’s under that tree, doctor, just inside the schoolyard.”

— Harper Lee

477. “Scout, let’s get us a baby.” “Where?”

— Harper Lee

478. “Atticus – ” said Jem bleakly. He turned in the doorway. “What, son?” “How could they do it, how could they?” “I don’t know, but they did it. 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. Good night.” But.”

— Harper Lee

479. “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.”

— Harper Lee

480. “Since Atlanta, she had looked out the dining-car window with a delight almost physical.”

— Harper Lee

481. “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.”

— Harper Lee

482. “Jean Louise was accustomed to her uncle’s brand of intellectual shorthand: it was his custom to state one or two isolated facts, and a conclusion seemingly unsupported thereby. Slowly and surely, if prodded correctly, Dr. Finch would unwind the reel of his strange lore to reveal reasoning that glittered with a private light of its own.”

— Harper Lee

483. “Calpurnia was to blame for this. It kept me from driving her crazy on rainy days, I guess. She would set me a writing task by scrawling the alphabet firmly across the top of a tablet, then copying out a chapter of the Bible underneath. If I reproduced her penmanship satisfactorily, she rewarded me with an open-faced sandwich of bread and butter and sugar. In Calpurnia’s teaching, there was no sentimentality: I seldom pleased her and she seldom rewarded me. “Everybody.”

— Harper Lee

484. “I don’t know why you can’t. Hypocrites have just as much right to live in this world as anybody.”

— Harper Lee

485. “God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things.”

— Harper Lee

486. “Jem’s face showed brief indecision on the ethics of withholding his own dime, but his innate courtesy won and he shifted his dime to his pocket. I did likewise with no qualms.”

— Harper Lee

487. “The Finch doorbell was a mystical instrument; it was possible to tell the state of mind of whoever pushed it. When it said dee-ding! Jean Louise knew Henry was outside bearing down happily. She hurried to the door.”

— Harper Lee

488. “She was never bored, and given the slightest chance she would exercise her royal prerogative: she would arrange, advise, caution, and warn.”

— Harper Lee

489. “The boy stood up. He was the filthiest human I had ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick.”

— Harper Lee

490. “Cynical, hell. I’m a healthy old man with a constitutional mistrust of paternalism and government in large doses.”

— Harper Lee

491. “The novel must tell a story.”

— Harper Lee

492. “Before Jem looks at anyone else, he looks at me, and I have tried to live so I can look squarely back at him. If I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn’t meet his eye, and the day I can’t do that I’ll know I’ve lost him.”

— Harper Lee

493. “After much passing around of money Cousin Joshua was moved across the tracks and placed in state accommodations for the irresponsible.”

— Harper Lee

494. “Jean Louise, will you please listen to me?” “God damn you, what?” “I just want to ask you one thing, one thing – what the hell do you expect me to do? Tell me, what the hell do you expect me to do?” “Do? I expect you to keep your gold-plated ass out of citizens’ councils! I don’t give a damn if Atticus is sitting across from you, if the King of England’s on your right and the Lord Jehovah’s on your left – I expect you to be a man, that’s all!” She.”

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

496. “We couldn’t operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that? You think about how much Cal does for you, and you mind her, you hear?”

— Harper Lee

497. “Tim Johnson was advancing at a snail’s pace, but he was not playing or sniffing at foliage: he seemed dedicated to one course and motivated by an invisible force that was inching him toward us. We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies; his jaw opened and shut; he was alist, but he was being pulled gradually toward us.”

— Harper Lee

498. “Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time. Atticus said no, it wasn’t that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts.”

— Harper Lee

499. “Below her, on rough benches, sat not only most of the trash in Maycomb County, but the county’s most respectable men.”

— Harper Lee

500. “I am a stranger at a cocktail party.”

— Harper Lee