To Kill A Mockingbird-Key Quotes

To Kill A Mockingbird-Key Quotes

1. Atticus Finch

   • "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb in his skin and walk around in it"
   • "I couldn't hold my head up in town"
   • "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird"
   • "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"
   • "I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't help that man"
   • "Before I live with other folks I've got to live with myself"
   • "I wanted you to see what real courage is. Instead of getting the idea 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 you see it through no matter what"
   • "There are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them"
   • "Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that"
   • "Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me"
   • "Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read with us and treated us with courteous detachment"
   • "Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. . .I'll take over from here and try to undo the damage" (Miss Caroline Fisher)
   • "Atticus Finch is the same in the house as he is on the public streets" (Miss Maudie)
   • "Don't say Nigger scout, that's common"
   • "When a child asks you something, answer him for goodness sake"
   • "Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty"
   • "I'm too old for that, son"
   • "It was times like this when I thought my father. who hated gun and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived"
   • "Moving slowly like an old man"
   • "Pushing up his glasses. . .alone in the street" (Trial. . .Mad dog. . .Lynch Mob)
   • "Underwater swimmer"
   • "Nauseating crawl"
   • "Pushed his glasses"
   • "I do my best to love everybody"

2. Miss Maudie

   • "Mockingbird's don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy"
   • "There are just some kind of men who-who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live this one"
   • "I think maybe he put his gun down when he realised God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things"
   • "People in their right minds never take pride in their talents"
   • "Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard"
     • The children see courage here from Miss Maudie.
   • "There are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them"
     • Miss Maudie understands everything Atticus is trying to do and influences the children as she explaing to them what or why Atticus is doing what he is.
   • "Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that"
   • "We're making a step-it's just a baby-step but it's a step"
   • "His food doesn't stick going down, does it?"

3. Scout Finch

   • "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"
   • "Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me"
   • "It came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world"
   • "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'"
   • "I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks."
   • "Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back"
   • "Do you want to grow up to be a lawyer?" "Nome, just a lady"
   • "It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason"
     • Scout learns about Maycomb's prejudice through Dolphus Raymond.
   • "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I"
   • "Hey Boo"
   • "Well, it'd sort of be like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?"
   • "Atiticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough"
   • "There wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra"
   • "Atticus, he was real nice"
   • "Scout younder's been readin' ever since she was born and she ain't even started school yet"
   • "I was far too old and too big for such childish things" (fighting)
   • "I never loved to read, one does not love breathing"
   • "Jem told me I was being a girl"
   • "I decided she had been swapped at birth"
   • "Boys don't cook"

4. Aunt Alexandra

   • "Alexandra was the Finch who remained at the Landing"
   • "She married a taciturn man"
   • Analogous to Mount Everest. . . she was cold and there"
   • "Uncle Jack made better use of his face: we were never wary of his sharp nose and chin"
   • "Add-A-Perl necklace"
   • "Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire"
   • "I (Jem) could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches"
   • "She was in her dressing gown, and I could have sworn she had on her corset underneath it"
   • "Aunt Alexandra was sitting in a rocking chair exactly as if she had sat there every day of her life"
   • "Because--he--is--trash. that's why you can't play with him. I'll not have you around him, picking up habits and learning Lord-knows-what" (Walter C)
   • "Don't be silly, Jean Louise," - The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he'll never be like Jem.
     • "Finch women aren't interested in that sort of people"
   • "What is Best For the Family"
     • Capital letters showing she is being patroising
   • Wants Scout to grow up as a "nice young lady."
   • "Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to"
   • "I can't say I approve of everything he does, Maudie, but he's my brother, and I just want to know when this will end. It tears him to pieces"
   • "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I"
   • "Boarding school manners"
   • She fits Maycomb society "like a hand into a glove"
   • She was an incurable gossip
   • "Put my bag in the front bedroom, Calpurnia was the first thing Aunt Alexandra said. Jean Louise, stop scratching you head was the second thing she said"

5. Boo Radley

   • How he is described
     • "Malevolant phantom"
     • "Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work"
     • "Even though the culprit was Crazy Addie, people looked at the Radly Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicians" (that it was Boo)
     • "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging by his tracks"
     • "He dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch"
     • "There was a long jagged scare that ran across his face"
     • "What teeth he had were yellow and rotten"
     • "His eyes popped and he drooled most of the time"
     • "There goes the meanest man God ever blew breath into"
     • "Unknown entity"
   • Ending with Boo
     • "Hey Boo"
     • Boo was our "Neighbour"
     • "Mr Arthur Radley" - acceptance
     • "Looks like a knife from the kitchen"
     • "It would be like shooting a mockingbird"
     • "Boo gave us our lives"
     • "Boo Radley had come out"
   • Boo Radley cared for the children
     • "When I went back, they were folded across the fence"
     • "Someone inside the house was laughing" - when children roll tire into Radley place"
     • "I looked down and found myself clutching a brown wollen blanket I was wearing around my shoulders" - Boo put it on her
     • "Withdrew two pieces of chewing gum"
     • "Real old.. . .Indian-heads"

6. Calpurnia

   • "She was all angles and bones"
   • "Her hand was as wide as a bed slat and twice as hard"
   • "Our battles were epic and one sided"
   • "I had felt her tyrannical presence ever since I could remember"
   • "There are some folks who don't eat like us. . .that boys yo company and if he wants to eat-up the table cloth, you let him."
   • "By watching her I began to think that there was some skill in being a girl"
   • "My children"
   • "Colourblind"
   • "Whites gamble on Sunday...blacks pray in it on weekdays"
   • "Why are you bringing white children to a nigger church" - inversion of prejudice

7. Dill

   • "Dill was a curiosity"
   • "His hair was snow white and stuck on his head like duck-fluff
   • "Dill had been studied and found acceptable"
   • ". . .It was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out"
   • "The Radley place fascinated Dill. . .it drew him as the moon drew water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole"
   • "I was miserable with him"
   • "He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. . .I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me"
   • "I can read. . .Dracular . .Small but I am old"

8. Jem

   • "Jem wanted Dill to know once and for all that he wansn't scared of anything"
   • ". . .You go gargle right now, you hear me?"
   • "But these are important to somebody"
   • "I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I ain't so sure now"
   • "Dont you cry. . .dont you worry"
   • "Hush Scout, It ain't time to worry yet"
   • "Jem tried to say something nice, but I wouldn't let him"
   • "He went so far as to tell me what to do"
   • "He had acquired a maddening air of wisdom"
   • "He's just about Mister Jem now"
   • "Jem's soft brown hair and eyes. . .Atticus' greying black hair. . .somehow alike" (Father like son)
   • "In his life, Jem had never declined a dare"

9. The Ewelles

   • Bob
     • "Bantem cock of a man"
     • "Strutted to the stand"
     • "As red as his neck" (Cockerel / red-neck"
     • "Wispy new-washed hair"
     • "No economic fluctuations changed their state"
     • "Lived as guests of the country"
     • Where he lives in comparison to Blacks
       • Lived in "once a negro cabin"
       • Just as poor Blacks cabin's "looked neat and snug"
       • "Full length of road"
       • "Bacon frying as crisp as the twilight air"
   • Myella
     • ""Gone to town to get ice-creams" - innocence of childhood
     • Event was planned
       • "Slap year to save seven nickels"
       • "Number of time" when to house
       • "The door looked fine"
     • "What her papa do to her doesn't count"
     • "You God dam whore"
     • "Must have been the loneliness person in the world"
   • Burris
     • "I have a Ewell here"
     • "I don't know how" (To spell his name - links to father at tial)
     • "Go home and wash your hair
     • "I've done my time for this year"
     • "The boy snorted and slouched to the door"
     • "Ain't no snot-nosed slut of a school teacher"

10. Miss Caroline (School teacher)

    • "crimson finger-nail polish"
    • "Peppermint drop"
    • "I am Miss Caroline Fisher"
    • "Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. . .I'll take over from here and try to undo the damage"

11. Tom Robinson

    • "You're a mighty good fellow"
    • "I felt sorry for her"
    • "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird"

12. Walter Cunningham

    • "Miss Caroline, he's a Cunningham"
    • ""Your bigger;n he is"
    • "Raised on fish food"
    • "Talked like two men"
    • Eyes were "red rimmed" and "watery"
    • "No colour in his face"
    • "The Cunninghams never took anything they couln't pay"