2016 so far has been a dismal year, considering the amount of greats from David Bowie, Umberto Eco, to Alan Rickman we’ve lost. Harper Lee’s recent demise was equally shaking and heartbreaking for everyone who grew up reading her everlasting novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. To Kill A Mockingbird is a lyrical and poignant tale of a father and his two children, who confront the racism and apartheid ingrained in the South of their times. Known for it’s beautiful writing, memorable descriptions and unbelievably likeable characters, be it the spirited Scout or the moral compass of the novel, Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird remains a true testament to the idea that an author never dies : their works lives on after them. We’ve rounded up a few memorable lines from To Kill A Mockingbird that made us think and delighted us at the same time.
Scout: “Atticus, he was real nice.”
Atticus: “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
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 see it through no matter what.
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
6.
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.”
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… 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.”
