The rest of this quote from Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is:

“It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

Harper Lee died yesterday at the age of 89, but her character, Atticus Finch, will hopefully never die. He was one of the most inspiring and courageous heroes of our age, one that influenced so many of us to struggle against racism within ourselves and in our society.

Those who read the Pulitzer Prize winning book and watched the amazing movie, can never forget how this humble man stood up to the bigotry of a small southern town in the 1930s that assumed the inferiority of black people. His six-year-old daughter, Scout, by witnessing her father’s struggle for justice, learns that a conscience is the most valuable gift a person can have. “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience,” she is told.

Atticus, and his creator Harper Lee, helped many of us to grow a conscience and the courage to go with it, and we should all give thanks for that precious gift.