# Quote — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

> "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
>
> “Your father's right," she said. "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."

- Author: [Harper Lee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee.md)
- Book: [To Kill a Mockingbird](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harper_Lee#To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_(1962)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird/id-rather-you

## More from this book

> I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird/i-think-theres.md)

> You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird/you-never-really.md)

> Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird/lawyers-i-suppose.md)