Wednesday, August 1, 2012

I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

I am BACK from Taiwan and this blog has suffered a one-month lapse of writing. But no fear... I will be uploading some photos soon and for the meantime, enjoy some quotes from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I was meaning to upload these (it is one of my most loved books) but never had the time to. We studied it for class. A book not only expressing the injustice of racism, but also a successful bildungsroman that captures the growth of a young girl and her family through a small town poisoned with prejudice. Lovely book.



They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... 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.
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. 
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.
Love the two above.
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.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. 
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.
Folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ‘em. You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.
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 J.P. 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 levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal.
"An' they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'cause they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice..." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
Atticus had two yellow pencils for me and a football magazine for Jem, which I suppose was a silent reward for our first day's session with Mrs. Dubose.
"Jem, she's old and ill. You can't hold her responsible for what she says and does. Of course, I'd rather she'd have said it to me than to either of you, but we can't always have our 'druthers."