They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

In Harper Lee’s novel *To Kill a Mockingbird* (1960), the line is spoken by Atticus Finch during a conversation with his daughter Scout in Maycomb, Alabama, as the town’s racial prejudices intensify around his decision to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Atticus acknowledges that many neighbors sincerely hold views he considers wrong, yet he insists that personal integrity must guide his actions even when the community disapproves. The remark crystallizes the novel’s moral atmosphere: a small-town majority expects conformity, while Atticus models principled resistance grounded in conscience rather than popularity.

The quote argues that democratic consensus is not a reliable measure of moral truth. Atticus distinguishes between respecting others’ right to an opinion and accepting their opinion as ethically binding. His point is inward-facing: a person must be able to “live with” themselves, meaning that self-respect depends on fidelity to conscience. By stating that conscience “doesn’t abide by majority rule,” Lee frames morality as something that can obligate an individual even when it isolates them socially. In the novel, this becomes a defense of civil courage: doing what is right may require standing against the prevailing norms of one’s community.