to kill a mockingbird, and to kill my time

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em. But remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their heart out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird"

Mockingbird is a kind of bird, which here is a metaphor for innocence. That innocent people are not supposed to pay for what they didn't do. Ever read To Kill A Mockingbird? Well, I highly recommend it. First, I reckon it as a story of a white child whose father's a lawyer who fight for black people rights, as my friend told me. As I began to read it, I got the idea that it is actually about a child whose father's a lawyer who defended an innocent man being accused as rapist. As I got deeper into the story, I realized the story was all about one thing that is, perhaps, so cliche but on the other hand so human: conscience. Anyway, beside the touching story, I find this book filled with great quotes that I decided to collect them while it's still fresh in my memory. And because I need something to kill my time in this long idle holiday. Pity. Wtvr.

"You never really understood a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" - Atticus Finch

"People in their right minds never take pride in their talents" - Maudie Atkinson

"Atticus (my father) is real old, but I wouldn't care if he couldn't do anything. I wouldn't care if he couldn't do a blessed thing. Atticus Finch is a gentleman, just like me!" - Jem Finch

"Real courage is not 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" - Atticus Finch

"We're makin' a step. Just a baby step, but it is a step" - Maudie Atkinson

"Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal... But we know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe. Some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cake than others. Some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of men" - Atticus Finch

"I am confident that you gentleman will review without passion the evidence you have heard. In the name of God, do your duty" - Atticus Finch, to the jury

"Everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowing" - Scout

"There's just one kind of folks. Folks" - Scout Finch

"If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?" - Jem Finch

"Most people are nice, Scout, when you finally see them" - Atticus

and finally,

"The highest tribute we can pay a man is to trust him to do right" - Maudie Atkinson

Hey, it's already August! my birthday is two days away woohooow :D