35 Inspirational Harper Lee Quotes On Success

Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee published only two books, yet she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 for her contribution to literature. She also received numerous honorary degrees, though she declined to speak on those occasions. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill Harris in To Kill a Mockingbird. May these Harper Lee Quotes On Success inspire you to take action so that you may live your dreams.

1. “I do my best to love everybody.” Harper Lee

2. “There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.” Harper Lee

3. “Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?” Harper Lee

4. “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.” Harper Lee

5. “When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles ’em.” Harper Lee

6. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” Harper Lee

7. “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky 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.” Harper Lee

8. “You can’t really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them.” Harper Lee

9. “People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.” Harper Lee

10. “Writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they’re quite different from people who must write.” Harper Lee

11. “Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.” Harper Lee

12. “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Harper Lee

13. “There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence. There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be.” Harper Lee

14. “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” Harper Lee

15. “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.” Harper Lee

16. “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. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, ‘I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.” Harper Lee

17. “Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.” Harper Lee

18. “She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.” Harper Lee

19. “A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.” Harper Lee

20. “We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.” Harper Lee

21. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” Harper Lee

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

23. “Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing.” Harper Lee

24. “It’s not necessary to tell all you know.” Harper Lee

25. “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 hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Harper Lee

26. “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.” Harper Lee

27. “You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” Harper Lee

28. “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. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.” Harper Lee

29. “Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.” Harper Lee

30. “Things are always better in the morning.” Harper Lee

31. “Things are never as bad as they seem.” Harper Lee

32. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Harper Lee

33. “To be a serious writer requires discipline that is iron fisted. It’s sitting down and doing it whether you think you have it in you or not. Everyday. Alone. Without interruption. Contrary to what most people think, there is no glamour to writing. In fact, it’s heartbreak most of the time.” Harper Lee

34. “It’s better to be silent than to be a fool.” Harper Lee

35. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Harper Lee

I hope you enjoyed these Harper Lee Quotes On Success. Do let us know which one was your favorite in the comments section below.

Check Out HARPER LEE: FROM MOCKINGBIRD TO WATCHMAN – Opening Clip from the New Documentary:

Have A Great Day!