Shoot all the bluejays you want, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird

Undoubtedly one of the classics of world literature! If you haven't read this yet, you had better not miss out any longer. Read it the first chance you get. Here are a few glimpses from this gem of a book:

The story is about the brother-sister duo of Jem and Scout Finch aged 10 and 6 respectively, and their father, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer (and one of the wisest and most brilliant characters ever penned down in history). Various incidents take place in the story the common point between all being the importance of not making judgements about people without knowing them for yourself. All of us make impressions about people when we first see them, which is inevitable. The important point to remember is not to let those impressions guide our behaviour towards people, because our impressions may have been completely wrong. Keep an open mind. As Atticus says: "... most people are [nice] Scout when you finally see them."

Have fun reading these memorable quotes from the book (courtesy the wit of Harper Lee. What do you mean Haprer Lee who? The author of course :D )

"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

"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 you see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do. "

-  Atticus Finch

"So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.  Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children."

-  Atticus Finch

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.  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 Finch

"I think there's just one kind of folks.  Folks." 

-  Scout Finch

"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 despise each other?"

-  Jem Finch

"When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake.  But don't make a production of it.  Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em."

-  Atticus Finch

"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."
-  Atticus Finch

 

"The witnesses for the state have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption - the evil assumption - that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber. Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men cannot be trusted around women, black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men."
-  Atticus Finch (to the jury)

 

"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 Finch

 

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

-  Scout Finch

 “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t doneany of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice. . . .”  "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”

-  Scount & Atticus Finch