Top 500 Harper Lee Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He staked me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me. I beat him up twice but it did no good, he only grew closer to Jem.”

— Harper Lee

402. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another they are Communists.”

— Harper Lee

403. “You deny them hope. Any man in this word, Atticus, any man who has a head and arms and legs, was born with hope in his heart.”

— Harper Lee

404. “They drew up her bosom to giddy heights, pinched in her waist, flared out her rear, and managed to suggest that Alexandra’s had once been an hourglass figure.”

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

406. “They said later that Mrs. Merriweather was putting her all into the grand finale, that she had crooned, “Po-ork,” with a confidence born of pine trees and butterbeans entering on cue. She waited a few seconds, then called, “Po-ork?” When nothing materialized, she yelled, “Pork!”

— Harper Lee

407. “To all parties present and participating in the life of the county, however, Alexandra was the last of her kind: she had river-boat, boarding-school manners; let any moral come along and she would uphold it; she was a disapprover; she was an incurable gossip.”

— Harper Lee

408. “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

409. “It doesn’t make sense to me. Looks like if Mr. Arthur was hankerin’ after heaven he’d come out on the porch at least. Atticus says God’s loving folks like you love yourself – ” Miss Maudie stopped rocking, and her voice hardened. “You are too young to understand it,” she said, “but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of – oh, of your father.” I.”

— Harper Lee

410. “Jem said Mr. Avery misfigured, Dill said he must drink a gallon a day, and the ensuing contest to determine relative distances and respective prowess only made me feel left out again, as I was untalented in this area.”

— Harper Lee

411. “Aver coraggio significa sapere di essere sconfitti prima ancora di cominciare, e cominciare egualmente e arrivare sino in fondo, qualsiasi cosa succeda.”

— Harper Lee

412. “That her son had developed all the latent characteristics of a three-dollar bill escaped her notice – all she knew was that she was glad he lived in Birmingham because he was oppressively devoted to her, which meant that she felt obliged to make an effort to reciprocate, which she could not with any spontaneity do.”

— Harper Lee

413. “No,” said Atticus, “putting his life’s history on display for the edification of the neighborhood.”

— Harper Lee

414. “Atticus said professional people were poor because the farmers were poor. As Maycomb County was farm country, nickels and dimes were hard to come by for doctors and dentists and lawyers.”

— Harper Lee

415. “Old Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of rapin’ his girl an’ had him arrested an’ put in jail – ” “Mr.”

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

417. “Let’s try to make him come out,” said Dill. “I’d like to see what he looks like.” Jem said if Dill wanted to get himself killed, all he had to do was go up and knock on the front door.”

— Harper Lee

418. “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

419. “A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what.”

— Harper Lee

420. “She loved everything that grew in God’s earth, even the weeds. With one exception. If she found a blade of nut-grass in her yard it was like the Second Battle of the Marne: she swooped down upon it with a tin tub and subjected it to blasts from beneath with a poisonous substance she said was so powerful it’d kill us all if we didn’t stand out of the way.”

— Harper Lee

421. “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

422. “Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans – folks say he pizened ’em and put ’em over on the school side of the fence.”

— Harper Lee

423. “Thanks, but Scout’ll run me down later.” His use of her childhood name crashed on her ears. Don’t you ever call me that again. You who called me Scout are dead and in your grave.”

— Harper Lee

424. “We could do nothing to please her. If I said as sunnily as I could, ‘Hey, Mrs Dubose,’ I would receive for an answer, ‘Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs Dubose!”

— Harper Lee

425. “Don’t argue with a man, especially when you know you can beat him.”

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

428. “I breathed again. It wasn’t me, it was only Calpurnia they were talking about. Revived, I entered the livingroom. Atticus had retreated behind his newspaper and Aunt Alexandra was worrying her embroidery.”

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

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

— Harper Lee

431. “Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to.”

— Harper Lee

432. “Miss Maudie settled her bridgework. “You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist – ” “That’s what you are, ain’t it?” “My shell’s not that hard, child. I’m just a Baptist.”

— Harper Lee

433. “He is an incredible man, she thought. A chapter of his life comes to a close, Atticus tears down the old house and builds a new one in a new section of town. I couldn’t do it. They built an ice cream parlor where the old one was. Wonder who runs it?”

— Harper Lee

434. “With her head on his shoulder, Jean Louise was content. It might work after all, she thought. But I am not domestic. I don’t even know how to run a cook. What do ladies say to each other when they go visiting? I’d have to wear a hat. I’d drop the babies and kill ’em.”

— Harper Lee

435. “If I could have explained these things to Miss Caroline, I would have saved myself some inconvenience and Miss Caroline subsequent mortification, but it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus, so I said, “You’re shamin’ him, Miss Caroline. Walter hasn’t got a quarter at home to bring you, and you can’t use any stovewood.”

— Harper Lee

436. “He was as good as his worst performance; his worst performance was Gothic.”

— Harper Lee

437. “For reasons unfathomable to the most experienced prophets in Maycomb County, autumn turned to winter that year.”

— Harper Lee

438. “The same families married the same families until relationships were hopelessly entangled and the members of the community looked monotonously alike.”

— Harper Lee

439. “She said: “The question, gentlemen – is one of liquor; You ask for guidance – this is my reply: He says, when tipsy, he would thrash and kick her, Let’s make him tipsy, gentlemen, and try!” Alexandra was not amused. She was extremely annoyed.”

— Harper Lee

440. “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

441. “A few graves in the cemetery were marked with crumbling tombstones; newer ones were outlined with brightly colored glass and broken Coca-Cola bottles.”

— Harper Lee

442. “I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me, and for the second time in my life I thought of running away.”

— Harper Lee

443. “She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.”

— Harper Lee

444. “The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region.”

— Harper Lee

445. “Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus,” his voice was distant, “can you come here a minute, sir?”

— Harper Lee

446. “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

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

— Harper Lee

448. “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

449. “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

450. “Take him, Mr. Finch.” Mr. Tate handed the rifle to Atticus; Jem and I nearly fainted. “Don’t waste time, Heck,” said Atticus.”

— Harper Lee