It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike--in the second place, folks don't like to have somebody around knowin' more than they do.

As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else for us to learn, except possibly algebra.

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.

Now...in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, ipods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

If this thing's hushed up it'll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I've tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.. if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn't meet his eye, and the day I can't do that I'll know I've lost him. I don't want to lose him and Scout, because they're all I've got.

There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.

Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street.