Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
by Christopher Sergel
28 popular highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird:
“I don't hafta take his sass”
“She was one of the rare ones, so effortlessly herself, and the world loved her for it.”
“I lay on my stomach, reached down and poked him. He rolled up. Then, feeling safe, I suppose, he slowly unrolled. He travelled a few inches in his hundred legs and I touched him again. He rolled up. Feeling sleepy, I decided to end things. My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke.”
“Real courage is 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.- Atticus Finch”
“The law says 'reasonable doubt,' but I think a defendant's entitled to the shadow of a doubt. There's always the possibility, no matter how improbable, that he's innocent.”
“Shoot all the bluejays you want if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird".”
“When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice. . . .” His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”
“Aunt Rachel says your name's Jeremy Atticus Finch.' Jem scowled. 'I'm big enough to fit mine,' he said. 'Your names longer'n you are. Bet it's a foot longer.”
“The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a court-room, be he any colour of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. 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.”
“It is not. It is not ok to hate anyone.”
“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.”
“I was to be a ham”
“Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house's yo' company, and don't ... remarking on their ways like you was so high and mighty. Yo' folks might be better ... bu tit don't count for nothin' the way you're discracin' 'em.”
“The night-crawlers had retired, but ripe chinaberries drummed on the roof when the wind stirred, and the darkness was desolate with the barking of distant dog.”
“Miss Caroline parecía no darse cuenta que los andrajosos alumnos de la primera clase, los cuales habían cortado algodón y cebado puercos desde que supieron andar, eran inmunes a la literatura de imaginación”
“From now on it’ll be everybody less one.”
“Atticus, forse ti sbagli...""Come hai detto?""Quasi tutti sembrano pensare di aver ragione loro, e che tu, invece, abbia torto...""Hanno sicuramente il diritto di pensarlo, come noi abbiamo il dovere di rispettare le loro opinioni", disse Atticus, "ma prima di vivere con gli altri io devo vivere con me stesso. L'unica cosa che non è tenuta a rispettare il volere della maggioranza è la coscienza”
“Vor allem, Scout', sagte er, 'musst du einen ganz einfachen Trick lernen, dann wirst du viel besser mit Menschen aller Art auskommen. Man kann einen anderen nur richtig verstehen, wenn man die Dinge von seinem Gesichtspunkt aus beachtet”
“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 beggining to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all the time. . . it's because he wants to stay inside.”
“Non mi ero mai messa di proposito a imparare a leggere, ma mi ero in un certo senso pasciuta del fango dei quotidiani. Nelle lunghe ore passate in chiesa… è stato forse allora che ho imparato a leggere? Nel mio ricordo non esisteva un’epoca in cui non fossi capace di leggere gli inni. Ora che ero costretta a pensarci, mi pareva che la lettura fosse una cosa venutami naturalmente, come l’abbottonarmi la tuta da operaio senza guardare, o fare il doppio nodo alle scarpe da un groviglio di lacci. Non ricordavo più il momento in cui le righe che il dito di Atticus indicava, muovendosi sulla pagina, si erano separate in tante parole, mi ricordavo di aver fissato quelle righe ogni sera della mia vita, ascoltando le notizie di cronaca, il dibattito parlamentare, i diari di Lorenzo Dow, tutto quello che leggeva Atticus, la sera, quando mi arrampicavo sulle sue ginocchia. Fino al giorno in cui mi minacciarono di non lasciarmi più leggere, non seppi di amare la lettura: si ama, forse, il proprio respiro?”
“But before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself.”
“Grandma says all men should learn to cook, that men oughta be careful with their wives and wait on 'em when they don't feel good.' said my cousin.”
“Kind, du darfst dich nie beleidigt fühlen, wenn jemand dir etwas nachruft, was er als Schimpfnamen betrachtet. Das zeigt nur, was für ein armseliger Mensch der andere ist, es verletzt nicht.”
“Но видишь ли, сын, когда ты станешь постарше, ты будешь немного лучше понимать людей. Что бы там ни было, а всякая толпа состоит из людей. Вчера вечером мистер Канингем был частью толпы, но всё равно он оставался человеком. Всякая толпа во всяком маленьком южном городке состоит из людей, которых мы знаем, из самых обыкновенных людей, и это не очень для них лестно, не так ли?”
“What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk, he wouldn't be as hard as some men at their best. There are just some kind of me 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.”
“But remember that to kill a mockingburd is a sin.”
“Well before I live with others, I have to live with myself." - Atticus Finch”
“Antes de vivir con los demás tengo que vivir conmigo mismo, y la única cosa que no se rige por la regla de la mayoría es la propia conciencia”
