Atticus Quotes

Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

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 see it through no matter what.

Atticus, he was real nice." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.

You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change. -Atticus Finch

Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but 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 except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

A sky full of stars and he was staring at her. —ATTICUS

We are made of all those who have built and broken us.

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

She conquered her demons and wore her scars like wings. 

Yer a good lad, Atticus, mowin’ me lawn and killin’ what Brits come around.

I hope to arrive to my death, late, in love, and a little drunk.

Summer, and he watches his children's heart break. Autumn again and Boo's children needed him. 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.

Watch carefully the magic that occurs when you give a person enough comfort to just be themselves.

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

I think it’s beautiful the way you sparkle when you talk about the things you love.

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.

Love her but leave her wild.

It was her chaos that made her beautiful. 

There is nothing prettier in the whole wide world than a girl in love with every breath she takes.

Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing 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.

She was afraid of heights but she was much more afraid of never flying.

I shall never marry, Atticus." "Why?" "I might have children.

I worry there is something broken in our generation, there are too many sad eyes on happy faces.

She had just enough madness to make her interesting

Depression is being colorblind and constantly told how colorful the world is.

I WANT TO BE WITH SOMEONE WHO DREAMS OF DOING EVERYTHING IN LIFE AND NOTHING ON RAINY SUNDAY AFTERNOONS.

She wasn't looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword. 

From the moment I saw her I knew this one was worth the broken heart.

What good are wings without the courage to fly?

That was her magic— she could still see the sunset even on those darkest days.

Chase your stars fool, life is short. 

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.

Do you defend niggers, Atticus?" I asked him that evening. "Of course I do. Don't say nigger, Scout. That's common." "'s what everybody at school says." "From now on it'll be everybody less one--" "Well if you don't want me to grow up talkin' that way, why do you send me to school?

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. ~To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 16, spoken by the character Atticus

Brushing a girl’s hair behind her ear once a day will solve more problems than all those therapists and drugs.

I let her go because I knew she could do better and now she's gone I wonder if I should've just been better.

We are all born free and spend a lifetime becoming slaves to our own false truths.

Wow you need to get some sun.” “Shut up. I'm Irish.

She wore the moonlight like lingerie. 

Time is all we have and don’t. 

Atticus, you must be wrong." "How's that?" "Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong. . ." "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but 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.

Sometimes I want a quiet life other times I want to go a little bit fucking Gatsby.

Atticus sat looking at the floor for a long time. Finally he raised his head. “Scout,” he said, “Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?” Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him and kissed him with all my might. “Yes sir, I understand,” I reassured him. “Mr. Tate was right.” Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. “What do you mean?” “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” Atticus put his face in my hair and rubbed it. When he got up and walked across the porch into the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. “Thank you for my children, Arthur.” he said.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

I will follow you, my love, to the edge of all our days, to our very last tomorrows.

THE HARDEST STEP WE ALL MUST TAKE IS TO BLINDLY TRUST IN WHO WE ARE. - ATTICUS

She was everything real in a world of make-believe. 

It was never the way she looked always the way she was I would have fallen in love with her with my eyes closed.

You deny them hope. Any man in this world, Atticus, any man who has a head and arms and legs, was born with hope in his heart. You won’t find that in the Constitution, I picked that up in church somewhere. They are simple people, most of them, but that doesn’t make them subhuman.

I aspire to be an old man with an old wife laughing at old jokes from a wild youth.

Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.

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.

Whoa. He had ghouls on speed dial. My lawyer kicks so much ass.

I have seen your darkest nights and brightest days and I want you to know that I will be here forever loving you in dusk.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY TO FIND THE PEOPLE WEIRD LIKE YOU. —ATTICUS

There’s too much risk in loving,’ the young boy said, ‘no,’ said the old man, ‘there’s too much risk in not.

Thinking of you is a poison I drink often. 

We're all Holden Caulfield at fifteen, but when we grow up we want to be Atticus Finch

We were strange in love her and I too wild to last too rare to die.

I feel in every girl there is a spirit, a wild pixie, that if let go, would run and dance in grassy fields until the end of the world. And then that girl grows up, that pixie hides, but it's always there, peeking out behind old eyes and reading glasses, laughing, waiting, to one day dance again.

What a strange world. We trade our days for things.

You deserve to be the person you were meant to be. 

Atticus---" ...said Jem bleakly. "How could they do it, how could they?" "I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before & they did it tonight & they'll do it again & when they do it--- seems that only children weep.

Don't worry— you see, to some you are magic.

I don't say anything and he casually leans against my desk, picking up the novel that's sitting there. "It's bullshit," he tells me, flicking through it. "There's no such thing as Atticus Finch." I shrug. "It'd be nice if there was, though.

Winning ugly is still winning.

Our songs live longer than our kingdoms.

She was not for everyone but she was for me. 

There will always a glimmer in those who have been through the dark.

Art takes time— Monet grew his gardens before he painted them.

I just need you and some sunsets. 

I had privately changed 'This, too, shall pass' into 'You, too, shall die'.

Oh. Oberon looked at me. I know that has to make you sad. But call to me instead, Atticus. I'll always answer. Your fly has been open all this time, by the way, and Granuaile hasn't said a thing. Thanks, buddy, I said silently as I tried to surreptitiously zip up my jeans. See? I got your back AND your front. I deserve a treat.

It's a lonely thing, protecting a breakable heart

She was another broken doll dreaming of a boy with glue. 

But stories are like people, Atticus. Loving them doesn’t make them perfect. You try to cherish their virtues and overlook their flaws. The flaws are still there, though. " "But you don’t get mad. Not like Pop does." "No, that’s true, I don’t get mad. Not at stories. They do disappoint me sometimes." He looked at the shelves. "Sometimes, they stab me in the heart.

It's a sad thing, protecting a breakable heart.

I've never met a strong person with an easy past.

As he took her hand he gave her all she had been waiting for-- a shiver down her spine.

We are never alone We are all wolves Howling to the same moon.

Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

When I pointed to him his palms slipped slightly, leaving greasy sweat streaks on the wall, and he hooked his thumbs in his belt. A strange spasm shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I gazed at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. “Hey, Boo,” I said. “Mr. Arthur, honey,” said Atticus, gently correcting me. “Jean Louise, this is Mr. Arthur Radley. I believe he already knows you.

We humans are so tortured by not properly guessing what will make us happy.

She found herself over a long and treacherous road and the more treacherous the road became, the more of herself she found.

Don't ask her to be a rock for you to lean upon instead, build her wings and point her to the sky and she will teach you both to fly.

Dude. If that was a Shakespearean quote duel, he just kicked your ass.

A few drinks and the world was hers— she wore her whiskey like a loaded gun.

Never go in search of love, go in search of life, and life will find you the love you seek.

You will respect my authori-tah!' Oberon said, in a passable imitation of Eric Cartman. I reminded him that I needed to concentrate. Sometimes dogs forget; they just get too excited.

You and I will be lost and found a thousand times along this cobbled road of us.

She walked through her life heavy from the mighty wings upon her back.

I would rather have a body full of scars and a head full of memories than a life of regrets and perfect skin.

The prettiest girls shine brightest in the dark. 

What's silly is paying five bucks for hot milk and flavored syrup! But now I see what's really been going on all this time! They charge you all that money because they need it for the R & D! Somewhere on the outskirts of Seattle, there's a secret facility with higher security than Area 51, and inside there are men with poor eyesight and bad haircuts wearing white coats, and they're trying to make the Holy Grail of all coffee drinks. The bacon latte? No, Atticus, I already told you those exist! I'm talking about the prophecy! 'Out of the steam and the foam and the froth, a man in white with poor eyesight will craft a liquid paradox, and it shall be called the Triple Nonfat Double Bacon Five-Cheese Mocha!' Oberon, what the F---?

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 sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.

What of the firefly, the one I love to chase? The old man smiled Love her he said but leave her wild, and the old oak tree I love to climb? Love her, he said, but leave her wild the bird that sings that song I love? Love her, he said, but leave her wild and the wolf that cries to the old joke moon? Love her, he said, but leave her wild and the horse that loves to run with storms? Love her, he said, but leave her wild. And what of her, the one I love most? And the old man smiled. Yes, he said, you must love her too but love her wild and she’ll love you

Oh noes, kitteh haz major angriez!” I said. I turned around to share a laugh with my companions and found them glaring at me. “What?” I asked. Leif shook a finger and said in a low, menacing tone, “If you tell me I have to talk like an illiterate halfwit to fit into this society, I will punch you.” “And I’ll pull out your goatee,” Gunnar added. “Lolcat iz new happeh wai 2 talk,” I explained to them. “U doan haz 2 be kitteh 2 speek it.

But 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 a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest JP court in the land, or this honourable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal

I have been around long enough to discount most superstitions for what they are: I was around when many of them began to take root, after all. But one superstition to which I happen to subscribe is that bad juju comes in threes. The saying in my time was, "Storm clouds are thrice cursed," but I can't talk like that and expect people to believe I'm a twenty-one year-old American. I have to say things like, "Shit happens, man.