Reading is like one's breathing, even if one does not like it.

Summer means all kinds of good things to eat. It's a thousand colors in the dry landscape.

3. There are some people who are so worried about the afterlife that they haven't learned how to live in it.

4. Raise your head and lower your fist. No matter what people say to you, don't get angry. Try to fight with your head.

5. When a child asks you a question, for God's sake, give him a good answer. Don't make up stories. Children are children, but they can detect avoidance faster than adults, and avoidance only confuses them. Swearing is a phase that every child goes through, and as they grow up, they learn that it's not going to attract attention, and they automatically break the habit. But a short temper does not.

6. It doesn't matter how many bluebirds you shoot, but remember, to kill a mockingbird is a sin. The robin only sings to us and does nothing wrong. They don't eat flowers and vegetables from people's gardens. They don't make nests in corn barns. They just sing songs for us from their hearts. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

7. If there was anything special about your father, it was his civilized heart. Good marksmanship is a gift from God. It's a talent -- sure, you need practice to perfect it, but it's not like playing the piano or anything else. He probably realized god had given him an unfair advantage over the other animals and put the gun down.

8. No one in his right mind would ever be proud of his talent.

9. One thing that does not conform to the herd rule is one's conscience.

10. What is courage? Don't make the mistake of thinking that a man holding a gun is courage. Courage is when you know you're going to lose before you've even begun, but you do it anyway and see it through no matter what.

11. There's no need to tell everything you know. People don't like to be around people who know more than they do. That would piss them off. Nothing you say is gonna change these people. There's nothing they can do about it unless they want to learn it. You can either keep your mouth shut or use their language.

12. People have to lie under certain circumstances, and they have to keep lying when they can't help it.

13. In my impression, "excellent people" are those who do their best according to their own insights.

14. Atticus once said that the way to tell if a witness is lying is to listen, not to look.

15. "You mean you drink Coca-Cola out of a paper bag? Pure Coca-Cola?"

"Why did you do that?"

"Why... Oh, you mean why would I pretend? This one. It's very simple." "Some people don't like it... My way of life. I can say fuck them. I don't care if they like it or not. I don't really care if they like it or not -- I'm not saying fuck them, though. Understand?"

"No, Sir."

"You see, I'm just giving them a reason. If people can't find that reason, I can help them by doing this. I rarely come into town, and when I do, if I stagger and wear a paper bag and stuff, people can say That Dors Raymond is in the grip of whiskey -- so he won't change his ways. He can't help himself. That's why he lives that way."

"It's dishonest, but it helps people. Miss Finch, I don't really drink much, but you know what? They'll never, ever understand that I'm living this way because it's the way I want to live.

I have never met a man so deliberately debased as to destroy his own image. But why would he tell us his deep secret?

"Because you're kids and you understand," he said, shaking his head at Dill. "His nature hasn't been broken. When he's older, he won't feel sick and cry about it. Maybe things will shock him -- it won't feel right, but he won't cry anymore, and in a few years he won't cry about it."

"Crying for what?"

"To weep for the suffering of others -- they do it without even thinking about it. Crying over the suffering that white people have caused black people, they don't even stop to think that they are human."

16. "Don't worry. Things are never as bad as they seem."

17. "Nothing in your life so far has contradicted your logical reasoning. The group eventually left, not because they were reasonable, but because we were there. We live in a world where something can drive people crazy -- they can't be fair no matter how hard they try. These are ugly, but they are social realities. As you get older, you see more of these things.

18. As I passed the old place, I sometimes felt a twinge of guilt when I remembered my part in it. It was pure torture for Arthur Radley -- what real hermit would want kids peeking out of Windows, delivering him letters on a bamboo pole, prowling his mustard field at night?

19. Among neighbors, food is sent when the family has died, flowers are sent when the family has been sick, and small gifts are given in other cases. Weirdos are our neighbors. He gave us two soap dolls, a pocket watch and chain that didn't work, a pair of lucky coins, and our lives. We never put anything in the hole in the tr