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There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence. There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be.

Harper Lee

Some negroes lie, some are immoral, some negro men are not be trusted around women – black and white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.
HARPER LEE

Black Human Immoral Lying Man Race Trust White Woman
It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.
HARPER LEE

Bad Hurt Insult Name Person Poor Thinking Yourself
Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?
HARPER LEE

Circumstance Insult Night Proud Stranger Yourself
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.
HARPER LEE

Family Myself Possible Protection Son Ugly World
But before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.
HARPER LEE

Deep Live Myself People Spiritual
My objectives are very limited. I want to do the best I can with the talent God gave me. I hope to goodness that every novel I do gets better and better, not worse and worse.
HARPER LEE

Best God Goodness Hope Limitation Myself Objective Talent Worst
You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
HARPER LEE

Hope Inspirational Motivational One Liner Rare Win Yourself
Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.
HARPER LEE

Desire Feeling Group Myself Woman
Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
HARPER LEE

Beginning Courage Reality See Yourself
The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.
HARPER LEE

Book Equality Reading Religious Thinking
She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.
HARPER LEE

Break Desire Herself Mistake Persistence Strong Talk
A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.
HARPER LEE

Enemy Man Wisdom
Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s 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.
HARPER LEE

Bird Destroy Enjoyment Garden Heart Music Sin Sing
Rest assured, as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood.
HARPER LEE

Alive Book Cooperation Fake Myself Rest
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.
HARPER LEE

Courage Hands Ideas Reality Weapon
You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.
HARPER LEE

Acknowledgement Choice Family Friendship Right Yourself
As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, ‘I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.
HARPER LEE

Better Earth Equality Growth Harm Important Myself Poor Rich Thinking Truth Yourself
The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
HARPER LEE

Conscience Listening People Person Rule
With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
HARPER LEE

Himself Life Love Relationship Routine
I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system – that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.
HARPER LEE

Believe Court Health Ideal Integrity Live Work
Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.
HARPER LEE

Attention Attraction Bad Children Language Time
I do much of my creative thinking while golfing. If people know you’re working at home they think nothing of walking in for a cup of coffee, but wouldn’t dream of interrupting on the golf course.
HARPER LEE

Coffee Creative People Sports Thinking Work Yourself
Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something. Men don’t like to do that. Sometimes it’s unpleasant.
HARPER LEE

Focus Himself Man Mindset Service
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.
HARPER LEE

Brave Father Hate Live Man Myself Thinking Time War Weapon
Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.
HARPER LEE

Beginning Cleaning End Faith Prejudice Reason
Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.
HARPER LEE

Himself Worth Writing
Sometimes the Bible in the hands of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of another.
HARPER LEE

Hands Man Oneself Religious Worst

There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence. There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence. There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Harper Lee Quotes