Atticus Finch

"All we can do is the best we can with what we have been given."

"You must try to see things from another person's perspective."

"I wanted you to see what real courage is and not to be afraid of it."

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us to try not to win."

"Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through."

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view."

"Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin in childhood."

"The simple hell of it is, we've got to make the best of things."

"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."

"Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself."

"As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life."

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started doesn't mean we shouldn't try to win."

"The truth, simply, is the truth."

"I'm simply defending the rights of the accused."

"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view."

"You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family."

"There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you."

"If you can learn a simple trick, you'll get along better with all kinds of folks."

"You must never tell a story because it's against the law, son. Tell stories because they're true."

"A man does what he must—as a concession to what he must do—in order to acquire peace of mind."

"I have to live with myself, and the one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is my own conscience."

"The simple faith of childhood must inevitably collide with a larger world of complex realities."

"An honest lawyer should present an unpopular client with the same vigor as a popular one."

"The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience."

"We're making a step forward, but we're going to have a good many steps backward before this is over."

"Maturity is not a function of age; it's a function of character and choices."

"The question is not whether right can triumph, but whether we have the courage to try."

"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned to accept the life that is waiting for us."