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Our Favorite Lines from To Kill a Mockingbird
Why are quotations so important to us? Is it because we feel less alone when we encounter an author who’s a kindred spirit? Is it because books are better at expressing what we feel than we are ourselves? Or is it because books introduce us to new ideas whose truth immediately strikes us?
It’s all of these things, and so much more. We quote lines from literature to comfort ourselves and each other, to validate our opinions, to articulate our feelings, to philosophize, to find humor in darkness, to make sense of the world, and to offer insight to others when we have no words of our own. Our favorite lines of literature can stay tucked away in our brains for years, until one day we summon them as the perfect poetic response, or the snappy comeback, or the much-needed nugget of wisdom.
Perhaps no other book is as full of quotable lines as Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. And with Lee’s second book, Go Set a Watchman, coming out on July 14, we’re anticipating a new treasure trove of pithy wisdom. While we wait, we’re revisiting some of our favorite lines from To Kill a Mockingbird.
“I just thought you’d like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin’ I can do it.” —Dill Harris
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” —Scout Finch
“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 Finch
“Don’t eat things you find, Scout.” —Jem Finch
“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.” —Scout Finch.
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” —Atticus Finch
“When stalking one’s prey, it is best to take one’s time. Say nothing, and as sure as eggs he will become curious and emerge.” —Scout Finch
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” —Atticus Finch
“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.” —Miss Maudie
“When you are in trouble you become easily tired.” —Scout Finch
“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 Finch
“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 Finch
“In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one’s mind was incapable of definite purpose.” —Scout Finch
“There are some men in the world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us.” —Miss Maudie
“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 despite each other?” —Jem Finch
“Hey, Boo.” —Scout Finch
What’s your favorite line from To Kill a Mockingbird?
We’re reading To Kill a Mockingbird aloud at every Barnes & Noble store on July 13. And on July 14, we’re celebrating the release of Go Set a Watchman. Join us!