You can choose your friends, but you sho' can't choose your family. Harper Lee More Quotes by Harper Lee More Quotes From Harper Lee Try fighting with your head for a change... it's a good one, even if it does resist learning. Harper Lee fightingdoetrying I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society. Harper Lee gentlemanguiltbroken Long ago, in a burst of friendliness, Aunty and Uncle Jimmy produced a son named Henry. Harper Lee long-agounclesson There is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is the court. Harper Lee collegestupidcountry They're real strong magic, they make you have good luck. Not like fried chicken when you're not lookin' for it, but things like long life n' good health, n' passin' six weeks tests...these are real valuable to somebody. Harper Lee good-luckstrongreal I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks. Harper Lee tkamkindlaughing Don’t talk like that, Dill,” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.” “I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?” “The way you tell it, it is. Harper Lee auntcynicalchildren Atticus said naming people after Confederate generals made slow steady drinkers. Harper Lee confederatemadepeople The remainder of my schooldays were no more auspicious than the first. Indeed, they were an endless Project that slowly evolved into a Unit, in which miles of construction paper and wax crayon were expended by the State of Alabama in its well-meaning but fruitless efforts to teach me Group Dynamics. Harper Lee alabamagroupseffort Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win. Harper Lee tkamwinningyears See there?" Jem was scowling triumphantly. "Nothin' to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl its mortifyin Harper Lee jemgirlsometimes They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night. Harper Lee tkamgood-nightchildren I could think of nothing else to say to her. In fact I could never think of anything to say to her, and I sat thinking of past painful conversations between us: How are you, Jean Louise? Fine, thank you ma'am, how are you? Very well, thank you; what have you been doing with yourself? Nothin'. Don't you do anything? Nome. Certainly you have friends? Yessum. Well what do you all do? Nothin'. Harper Lee factspastthinking Calpurnia evidently remembered a rainy Sunday when we were both fatherless and teacherless. Let to its own devices, the class tied Eunice Ann Simpson to a chair and placed her in the furnace room. We forgot her, trooped upstairs to church, and were listening quietly to the sermon when a dreadful banging issued from the radiator pipes, persisting until someone investigated and brought forth Eunice Ann saying she didn't want to play Shadrach any more - Jem Finch said she wouldn't get burnt if she had enough faith, but it was hot down there. Harper Lee sundayplayclass Next morning I awoke, looked out the window and nearly died of fright. My screams brought Atticus from his bathroom half-shaven. "The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something -!" I dragged him to the window and pointed. "No it's not," he said. "It's snowing. Harper Lee halfsnowmorning We said good-bye, and Dill went inside the house. He evidently remembered he was engaged to me, for he ran back out and kissed me swiftly in front of Jem. "Yawl write, hear?" he bawled after us. Harper Lee housewritingbye Dill if you don't hush I'll knock you bowlegged. Harper Lee hushifs Yeah, that's all," said Dill. "He'll probably come out after you when he sees you in the yard, then Scout'n' me'll jump on him and hold him down till we can tell him we ain't gonna hurt him. Harper Lee yardsyeahhurt Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained - if you ate animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time. Harper Lee cateyeanimal "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." Harper Lee nicerealhands
