One of America's favorite writers, Harper Lee, sadly passed away on February 19, 2016. She lived to be an incredible 89 years old and during her lifetime she wrote a novel that was, and is, exceptionally known. To Kill A Mockingbird won several noteworthy awards, including: a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, the Alabama Library Association Award in 1961, and Paperback of the Year in 1962. Not mention, the book was made into a movie in 1962 that was nominated for eight academy awards. Harper Lee herself even won America's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2007. Although her passing has brought great sorrow, her legacy lives on through her words.
Here are 10 of Harper Lee's most inspiring quotes.
1. “Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”
-Go Set A Watchman
2. "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."
-A letter to a young boy from Harper Lee in 2006
3. "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."
-To Kill A Mockingbird
4. "Before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself."
-To Kill A Mockingbird
5. "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."
-To Kill a Mockingbird
6. “She was almost in love with him. No, that’s impossible, she thought: either you are or you aren’t. Love’s the only thing in this world that is unequivocal. There are different kinds of love, certainly, but it’s a you-do or you-don’t proposition with them all."
-Go Set A Watchman
7. "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
-To Kill A Mockingbird
8. “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it...some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.”
-Interview with Oprah
9. "People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for."
-To Kill A Mockingbird
10. “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
-To Kill A Mockingbird
May the brilliant author rest in peace, and may we all learn something from her wisdom.
