Quotes
"First of all," he [Atticus] said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a
lot better with all kinds of folks. 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."
30
Miss Maudie: "Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets."
46
Atticus: "This case, Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a
man's conscience-Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help
that man."
104
Atticus: "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."
112
Calpernia: "It is not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike- in the second place,
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."
126
Scout: "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,
130
obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land
the finer it was."
Reverend Sykes: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."
211
Atticus: "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."
211
Atticus: "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life,
but let me tell you something and don't you forget it-whenever a white man does that to
220
a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from,
that white man is trash."
Aunt Alexendra: "'Don't be silly, Jean Louise,' said Aunt Alexandra. 'The thing is, you
can scrub Walter Cunningham till her shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit,
but he'll never be like Jem. Besides, there's a drinking streak in that family a mile wide.
Finch women aren't interested in that sort of people.'"
224
Scout: "Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
Quote 1: "I told Calpurnia to just wait, I'd fix her: one of these days when she wasn't looking
I'd go off and drown myself in Barker's Eddy and then she'd be sorry. Besides, I added, she'd
already gotten me in trouble once today: she had taught me to write and it was all her fault."
Chapter 3, pg. 29
Quote 2: "cootie" Chapter 3, pg. 30
Quote 3: "It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company. Sometimes I did
not understand him, but my periods of bewilderment were short-lived." Chapter 6, pg. 61
Quote 4: "pass the damn ham, please" Chapter 9, pg. 83
Quote 5: "that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that ... I
was born good but had grown progressively worse every year . . . . but when I asked Atticus
about it, he said there were already enough sunbeams in the family and to go on about my
business, he didn't mind me much the way I was." Chapter 9, pg. 86
Quote 6: "'nigger-lover'" Chapter 9, pg. 87
Quote 7: "'whore-lady'" Chapter 9, pg. 89
Quote 8: "I never figured out how Atticus knew I was listening, and it was not until many years
later that I realized he wanted me to hear every word he said." Chapter 9, pg. 93
Quote 9: "'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. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'" Chapter 10, pg. 94
Quote 10: "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." Chapter 11, pg. 105
Quote 11: "'The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.'"
Chapter 11, pg. 109
Quote 12: "'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.'" Chapter 11, pg. 116
Quote 13: "know[s] now what he was trying to do, but Atticus was only a man. It takes a
woman to do that kind of work." Chapter 13, pg. 137
Quote 14: "'What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape or the best defense to
it?'" Chapter 18, pg. 190
Quote 15: "Maycomb gave [the Ewells] Christmas baskets, welfare money, and the back of its
hand." Chapter 19, pg. 194
Quote 16: "'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.'" Chapter 22, pg. 215
Quote 17: "Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in
the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute
Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed." Chapter 25, pg. 244
Quote 18: "'Hey, Boo.'" Chapter 29, pg. 273
Quote 19: "'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....'" Chapter 30, pg. 278
Quote 20: "'[m]ost people are, Scout, when you finally see them.'" Chapter 31, pg. 284
Key Quotations About Characters
Atticus
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"He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb County born and bred; he knew his people,
they knew him, and because of Simon Finch's industry, Atticus was related by blood
and marriage to nearly every family in the town." (P. 5)
"Atticus said professional people were poor because the farmers were poor." (P. 23)
"Atticus greeted Walter and began a discussion about crops neither Jem nor I could
follow." (P. 26)
"We couldn't operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that?" (P. 28)
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"His fingers wandered to his watch pocket; he said that was the only way he could
think." (P.32)
"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." (p.33)
"Do you know what a compromise is? . . . an agreement reached by mutual
concessions. If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading
every night just as we always have. Is it a bargain?" (p. 35)
"Atticus said if I paid no attention to him, Jem would come down. Atticus was right."
(P. 35)
"What are you doing with those scissors, then? Why are you tearing up that
newspaper? If it's today's I'll tan you." (P. 45)
"Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don't do in the
yard . . . "
"Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets." (P. 51)
"'You want to be a lawyer, don't you?' Our father's mouth was suspiciously firm, as if
he were trying to hold it in line." (P. 55)
"Atticus saved Dill from immediate dismemberment . 'Just a minute, Miss Rachel,' he
said. 'I've never heard of 'em doing that before. Were you all playing cards?'" (p. 61)
"He said he often woke up during the night, checked on us, and read himself back to
sleep." (P. 63)
"Atticus strolled over to Miss Maudie's sidewalk where they engaged in an armwaving conversation, the only phrase of which I caught was ' . . . erected an absolute
morphodite in that yard! Atticus you'll never raise 'em!'" (P. 75)
"I saw Atticus carrying Miss Maudie's heavy oak rocking-chair, and thought it most
sensible of him to save what she valued most." (P. 77)
"Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting any
more . . . " (P. 82)
"I'm simply defending a Negro . . . there's been some high talk around town to the
effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man." (P. 83)
"If I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent my county in
legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again." (P. 83)
" . . .every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. . . .
Try fighting with your head for a change . . " (p. 84)
"When a child asks you something, answer him . . . they can spot an evasion quicker
than adults. . . all she needs is assistance sometimes." (P. 97)
" . . . I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness . . . I just
hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the
town. I hope they trust me enough . . . " (p. 98)
"Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty."( p. 98)
"Atticus wasn't interested in guns . . . 'shoot all the blue jays you want . . . but
remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (P. 99)
"Atticus Finch was the deadest shot in Maycomb County in his time." (P. 108)
"Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!"
This key quotes summary was found at www.englishresources.co.uk
1) Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather
the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.
Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to
Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff
collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock
naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.—
Scout (11)
2) "What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn't be as hard as
some men are at their best. 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, and you can look down the
street and see the results." –Miss Maudie (52)
3) When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us
in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem, "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." That was
the only time I ever hear Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie
about it. "You're father's right," she said. "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. That's why it's a sin to kill a mocking bird." (98)
4) "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions,"
said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing
that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." –Atticus (114)
5) "The witnesses for the state…have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court,
in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, 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, that all Negro men are not to be
trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber. Which,
gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to
point out to you. You know the truth, the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are
immoral, some Negro men cannot 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…"—Atticus (217)
6) "I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], 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…"—Atticus talking to Jem (225)
7) "…As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let
me tell you something and don't you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black
man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man
is trash."—Atticus (233)
8) "…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."—Jem (240)
9) "I'm not a very good man, sir, but I am sheriff of Maycomb County. Lived in this town all
my life an' I'm goin' on forty-three years old. Know everything that's happened here since
before I was born. 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."—Sheriff
Tate (290)
10) "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between.
Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of goodluck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree
what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad."—Scout (293)