Atticus Finch quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Atticus Finch

I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house. And that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit 'em, but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird...Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncribs, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.

Atticus Finch

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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

No need to be afraid of him, son. He's all bluff. 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

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

The State has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place.

Atticus Finch

She lied in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society. A code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson - a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was for her, a daily reminder of what she did. Now what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.

Atticus Finch

The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the Sheriff of Maycomb County, 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 Negros lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against two white people.

Atticus Finch

Now gentlemen, in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality. Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson.

Atticus Finch

Tom Robinson's dead. They were taking him to Abbottsville for safekeeping. Tom broke loose and ran. The deputy called out to him to stop. Tom didn't stop. He shot at him to wound him and missed his aim. Killed him. The deputy says Tom just ran like a crazy man. The last thing I told him was not to lose heart, that we'd ask for an appeal. We had such a good chance. We had more than a good chance.

Atticus Finch

Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for my children.

Is he poor?

Atticus

Yes.

Are we poor?

Atticus

We are indeed.

Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?

Atticus

No, not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers. The crash hit them the hardest.

Atticus

Good Afternoon Miss Dubose... My, you look like a picture this afternoon.

He don't say a picture of what.

Atticus, do you think Boo Radley ever really comes and looks in my window at night? Jem says he does. This afternoon when we were over by their house...

Atticus

Scout. I told you and Jem to leave those poor people alone. I want you to stay away from their house and stop tormentin' them.

Yes, sir.

Atticus

Well, I think that's all the reading for tonight, honey. It's gettin' late.

What time is it?

Atticus

Eight-thirty.

May I see your watch? [reading] 'To Atticus, My Beloved Husband.' Atticus, Jem says this watch is gonna belong to him some day.

Atticus

That's right.

Why?

Atticus

Well, customary for the boy to have his father's watch.

What are you gonna give me?

Atticus

Well, I don't know that I have much else of value that belongs to me. But there's a pearl necklace - and there's a ring that belonged to your mother. And I've put them away and they're to be yours.

Atticus

Do you know what a compromise is?

Bendin' the law?

Atticus

Uh, no. It's an agreement reached by mutual consent. Now, here's the way it works. You concede the necessity of goin' to school, we'll keep right on readin' the same every night, just as we always have. Is that a bargain?

Narrator

There just didn't seem to be anyone or anything Atticus couldn't explain. Though it wasn't a talent that would arouse the admiration of any of our friends, Jem and I had to admit he was very good at that, but that was all he was good at, we thought.

Atticus, do you defend ****?

Atticus

Don't say '****,' Scout.

I didn't say it...Cecil Jacobs did. That's why I had to fight him.

Atticus

Scout, I don't want you fightin'!

I had to, Atticus, he...

Atticus

I don't care what the reasons are. I forbid you to fight. There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.

If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?

Atticus

For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again. You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing...that you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.

Atticus

Do you want to tell us what really happened?

Mayella

I got somethin' to say. And then I ain't gonna say no more. He took advantage of me. An' if you fine, fancy gentlemen ain't gonna do nothin' about it, then you're just a bunch of lousy, yella, stinkin' cowards, the - the whole bunch of ya, and your fancy airs don't come to nothin'. Your Ma'am'in' and your Miss Mayellarin' - it don't come to nothin', Mr. Finch, not...no.

Hey Boo.

Atticus

Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley. I believe he already knows you.

Atticus

It'll have to come before the County Court. Of course, it's a clear-cut case of self-defense.

Sheriff Tate

Mr. Finch, do you think Jem killed Bob Ewell? Is that what you think? Your boy never stabbed him.

Mr. Tate was right.

Atticus

What do you mean?

Well, it would be sort of like shooting a mockingbird, wouldn't it?

Atticus

I must be losing my memory. I can't remember whether Jem is twelve or thirteen. Anyway, it'll have to come before the county court. Of course, it's a clear-cut case of self defense. I'll, uh... well, I'll run down to the office--

Sheriff Heck Tate

Mr. Finch, do you think Jem killed Bob Ewell? Is that what you think? Your boy never stabbed anyone.

Sheriff Heck Tate

Bob Ewell fell on his knife. He killed himself. There's a black man dead for no reason; now the man responsible for it is dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. I never heard tell it was against the law for any citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did. But maybe you'll tell me it's my duty to tell the town all about it and not to hush it up? Well, you know what'll happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb, including my wife, will be knocking on his door bringing angel food cakes. To my way of thinking, taking the one man who's done you and this town a big service and dragging him with his shy ways into the limelight — to me, that's a sin. It's a sin, and I'm not about to have it on my head. I may not be much, Mr. Finch, but I'm still Sheriff of Maycomb County, and Bob Ewell fell on his knife. Good night, sir.