Timeless Quotes From To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a popular Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Harper Lee about justice in a small Southern American town. Published in 1960, it became standard reading for millions of young people.

It is the story of a young girl nicknamed Scout growing up during the American Depression in Alabama in the 1930’s. The book quickly became a best-seller, won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie in 1962, with Gregory Peck winning an Oscar for his memorable portrayal of Atticus.

By 2015, book sales of To Kill a Mockingbird were reported by Harper Collins to be more than 40 million worldwide, making it one of the most widely read American novels of the 20th century. In 2018 it was voted as America’s Best-Loved Novel, further cementing this book as a beloved classic of American Literature.

Here is a collection of some of the most popular quotes from To Kill A Mockingbird:

1. 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. – Atticus

2. Before I can live with other folks, I’ve got to live with myself. – Atticus

3. You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change. – Atticus

4. Things are never as bad as they seem. – Miss Maudie

5. There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ‘em all away from you. That’s never possible. – Atticus

6. 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

7. It’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird. – Atticus

8. It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you. – Atticus

9. 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. – Atticus

10. We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple. – Miss Maudie

11. People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for. – Atticus

12. It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. – Scout

13. Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about? – Atticus

14. Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open. – Atticus

15. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. – Atticus

16. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. – Atticus

17. Things are always better in the morning.