"To Kill a Mockingbird" Quotes and Notes

Themes
1) The Coexistence of Good and Evil
Scout and Jem childhood innocence àconfront evil
Tom Robinson and Boo Radley not prepared for evil & destroyed.
Jem's faith in justice and in humanity damaged, and he retreats into a state of disillusionment.
Atticus has experienced evil without losing his faith in the human capacity for goodness. Shows Jem and Scout possible to live with conscience without losing hope or becoming cynical.
Admires Mrs. Dubose's courage even while deploring her racism.
Scout's progress as a character in the novel is defined by her gradual development toward understanding Atticus's lessons, culminating when, in the final chapters, Scout at last sees Boo Radley as a human being
2) The Importance of Moral Education
Story charts Scout's moral education, and the theme of how children are educated— at the end of the book, Scout even says that she has learned practically everything except algebra
Atticus devotes himself to instilling a social conscience in Jem and Scout - ability to put himself in his children's shoes.
Teachers unsympathetic to children or morally hypocritical - Miss Caroline's rigid commitment to the educational techniques - ineffective and even dangerous.
3) Prejudice & Tolerance
Social hierarchy of Maycomb
Finches stand near the top
Ignorant country farmers like the Cunninghams below
White trash Ewells below the Cunninghams.
Black community below even the Ewells,
Rigid social divisions irrational and destructive. For example, Scout cannot understand why Aunt Alexandra refuses to let her consort with young Walter Cunningham.
Lee uses the children's perplexity at the unpleasant layering of Maycomb society to critique the role of class status and, ultimately, prejudice in human interaction.
4) Others
Justice
Men & Women
Religion & Morality
Courage
Individual & Community

Quotations
1. The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predeliction unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not go to church, Maycomb's principal recreation
2. The shutters and the doors of the Radley House were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb's ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only.
3. Ladies wore corsets, men wore coats
4. ‘Profane language in the presence and hearing of a female
5. ‘If the judge released Arthur, Mr Radley would see to it that Arthur would give him no further trouble. Knowing that Mr Radley's word was his bond, the judge was glad to do so
6. The doors of the Radley house were closed on weekdays as well as Sundays, and Mr Radley's boy was not seen again for fifteen years
7. He said Atticus never talked much about the Radleys: when Jem would question him Atticus's only answer was for him to mind his own business and let the Radleys mind theirs
8. Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighbourhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing. According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the living Room cutting some items from the Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.
9. Jem figured that Mr Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time. Atticus said no, it wasn't that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts
10. From the day Mr Radley took Arthur home, people said the house died.
11. Stephanie Crawford said she woke up in the middle of the night one time and saw him looking straight through the window at her…said his head was like a skull lookin'at her.
12. He walks like this-‘ Jem slid his feet through the gravel… I've seen his tracks in our back yard many a mornin'… I heard him scratching on the back screen'
. …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 that he could catch, so that's why his hands were blood-stained… 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.
14. In all his life Jem had never declined a dare.
15. Jem thought about it for three days. I supposed he loved honor more than his head.
16. When he said that, I knew he was afraid.
17. I am Miss Caroline Fisher. I am from North Alabama….
North Albama was full of Liquor interests,
Miss Caroline seemed unaware that the ragged denim-shirted and flour sack-skirted first grade, most of whom had chopped cotton and fed hogs, were immune to imaginative literature
18. Atticus ain't got time to teach me anything… I never deliberately learned to read
19. Having never questioned Jem's pronouncements...
20. The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back' They don't have much but they get along on it
21. You're shamin' him, Miss Caroline. Walter hasn't got a quarter at home to bring you, and you can't use any stovewood.
22. He's one of the Ewells ma'am.
23. Walter looked as if he had been raised on fish food.
24. Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand.
25. When she was furious Calpurnia's grammar became erratic.
26. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table-cloth you let him, you hear?...
27. He ain't company, Cal he's just a Cunningham-
28. We couldn't operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that?
29. 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.
30. Atticus said that the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations'
31. They were people, but they lived like animals
32. It's against the law, all right, said my father, and it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief cheques on green whisky his children have a way of crying from hunger pains
33. Do you know what a compromise is?
34. Calpurnia's tyranny, unfairness, and meddling in my business had faded to gentle rumblings of general disapproval. On my part, I went to much trouble, sometimes, not to provoke her
35. Neighbourhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived
36. Someone inside the house was laughing
37. Miss Maudie hated her house: time spent indoors was time wasted. She was widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower-beds in an old straw hat and men's coveralls, but after her five o'clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty
38. I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me no matter what folks said he did
39. The things that happened to people we never really know . What happens in houses behind closed doors
40. Mr Radley shot at a Negro in his collard patch
41. I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk round in it
42. They'd been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed em like somethin' I'd try to do.
43. I pulled out two images carved out in soap. One was the figure of a boy, the other wore a crude dress.
44. Someone had filled our knot hole with cement.
45. I looked down and found myself clutching a brown woollen blanket.
46. Don't say nigger Scout. That's common.
47. No matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home.
48. It was the first time I had ever walked away from a fight.
49. Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches.
50. Grandma said it's bad enough that he lets you run wild, but now he's turned into a nigger lover we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin.
51. But I never figured out how Atticus knew I was listening, and it was not until many years later that I realised he wanted me to hear every word he said.
52. Remember that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird...Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up peoples 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.''
54. Mr Tate handed the rifle to Atticus; Jem and I nearly fainted.... Atticus Finch was the deadest shot in Maycomb county.
56. Don't you say hey to me you ugly girl.What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole young lady. Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for.
57. It was at 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.
58. All I can say is when you and Jem are grown maybe you'll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn't let you down.
59. 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
60. Scout, said Atticus, nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything- like snot-nose. It's hard to explain-ignorant trashy people use it when they think somebody's favouring Negroes over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common ugly term to label somebody

61. You aren't really a nigger- lover then are you?
I certainly am I do my best to love everybody …I'm hard put sometimes baby. It's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name, it just shows how poor that person is – it doesn't hurt you
62. I wanted you to see something about her – 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 you sometimes you do.
63. She made me soap all over twice
She had trusted Jem for years, but that night she invaded his privacy
She made me wear a petticoat
I don't want anybody saying I don't look after my children
67. First Purchase African ME church...called First Purchase because it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves. Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays
68. When they saw Jem and me with Calpurnia, the men stepped back and took of their hats, women crossed their arms at their waists
69. Calpurnia said ‘Stop right there nigger...Lula stopped, but she said, You aint got no business bringin' white chillun her. They got their church, and we got our'n...Calpurnia said It's the same God aint it?
70. You all know of Brother Tom Robinson's trouble. He has been a faithful member of First Purchase since he was a boy
71. I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen
72. This church has no better friend than your daddy
73. Helen's finding it hard to get work these days…when it's picking time I don't think Mr Link Deas'll take her' It's because of what folks say Tom's done she said. Folks aren't anxious to have anything to do with his family
74. Suppose you and Scout talked coloured-folks talk at home, it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks talk at church, and with my neighbours, they'd think I was putting on airs
75. You oughta let your mother know where you are...He rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall
76. Way back about nineteen twenty there was a Klan
77. Go home I said Jem shook his head as Atticus's fists went to his hips, so did Jem's and as they faced each other I could see a little resemblance between them' Mutual defiance made them both alike
78. You now it's a funny thing about Braxton said Atticus who despises Negroes, won't have on near him
79. But son, you'll understand folks a little better when you're older. A mob's always made up of people no matter what. Mr Cunningham was part of a mob last night but he was still a man. A gang of wild animals can be stopped simply because they're still human
80. It was like Saturday. People from the south end of the county passed our house in a leisurely but steady stream. Mr Dolphus Raymond lurched by on his thoroughbred. ‘Don't see how he stays in his saddle' murmured Jem ‘How can you stand to get drunk before eight in the morning?
81. They don't belong here. Coloured folks won't have em because they're half white – white folks won't have them because they're coloured
82. The Negroes, having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come in
83. But you didn't call a doctor? While you were there did anyone send for one
84. Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of a depression
85. I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella
86. Never, never, never on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenet I absorbed with my baby food
87. Mr Finch is courteous to everybody
88. I wondered if anybody had ever called her ‘ma'am' or ‘Miss Mayella' in her life
89. Tom Robinson's powerful shoulders rippled under his shirt………………..His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right
90. Why don't you tell the truth, child, didn't Bob Ewell beat you up? When Atticus turned away from Mayella he looked like his stomach hurt
91. Seemed like every time I passed by yonder she'd have some little somethin' for me to do. Mr Ewell didn't seem to help her none
92. She says she never kissed a grown before an' she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her papa do to her don't count
93. Tom Robinson's manners were as good as Atticus's
94. He would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run – a sure sign of guilt
95. The way that man called him ‘boy' all the time and sneered at him, it ain't right, it made me sick
96. You mean all you drink in that sack's Coca-Cola? It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason I'm not much of a drinker, but you see they could never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live
97. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable : she kissed a black man
98. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet
99. I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it – it seems that only children weep
100. I simply want to tell you that there are some men in the world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them
101. Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with
102. ‘n our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly but those are facts of life
103. Miss Maudie can't serve on a jury because she's a woman
104. His food doesn't stick going down does it?
105. He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children
106. Atticus has used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.
107. There are no better people in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn't think so is a mystery to me...Miss Gates was... talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say, "it's time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were getting way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us." Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home?
108. ‘Hey, Boo,' I said.
109. If this thing's hushed up it'll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I've tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. Before Jem looks at anyone else, he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him
110. There's a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it's dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead.
111. Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mocking bird, wouldn't it?
112. He almost whispered it, in the voice of a child afraid of the dark.
113. Atticus 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.