Langston Hughes Quotes

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
OppressionNow dreamsAre not availableTo the dreamers,Nor songsTo the singers.In some landsDark nightAnd cold steelPrevail--But the dreamWill come back,And the songBreakIts jail.
Langston Hughes
Sometimes a crumb fallsFrom the tables of joy, Sometimes a boneIs flung.To some peopleLove is given, To othersOnly heaven.
Langston Hughes
Joe has sense enough to knowHe is a god.So many gods don't know.
Langston Hughes
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
Langston Hughes
The sea is a desert of waves,A wilderness of water.
Langston Hughes
Question and AnswerDurban, Birmingham,Cape Town, Alabama,Johannesburg, Watts,The earth aroundStruggling, fighting,Dying--for what?A world to gain.Groping, hoping,Waiting--for what?A world to gain.Dreams kicked asunder,Why not go under?There's a world to gain.But suppose I don't want it,Why take it?To remake it.
Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.
Langston Hughes
I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn I dream a world where all Will know sweet freedom's way, Where greed no longer saps the soul Nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free, Where wretchedness will hang its head And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind- Of such I dream, my world!
Langston Hughes
I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books — where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.
Langston Hughes
My old man's a white old manAnd my old mother's black.If ever I cursed my white old manI take my curses back.If ever I cursed my black old motherAnd wished she were in hell,I'm sorry for that evil wishAnd now i wish her wellMy old man died in a fine big houseMy Ma died in a shack.I wonder were i'm going to die,Being neither white nor black?
Langston Hughes
Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas
Langston Hughes
People up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July.
Langston Hughes
When peoples cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.
Langston Hughes
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
Langston Hughes
Words Like FreedomThere are words like FreedomSweet and wonderful to say.On my heartstrings freedom singsAll day everyday.There are words like LibertyThat almost make me cry.If you had known what I knowYou would know why.
Langston Hughes
I will take your heart.I will take your soul out of your bodyAs though I were God.I will not be satisfiedWith the little words you say to me.I will not be satisfiedWith the touch of your handNor the sweet of your lips alone.I will take your heart for mine.I will take your soul.I will be God when it comes to you.
Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Langston Hughes
God in his infinite wisdomDid not make me very wise-So when my actions are stupidThey hardly take God by surprise.
Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreamsfor if dreams dielife is a broken-winged birdthat can not fly.Hold fast to dreamsfor when dreams golife is a barren fieldfrozen with snow.
Langston Hughes
I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
Langston Hughes
I stay cool, and dig all jive,That's the way I stay alive.My motto, as I live and learn, isDig and be dugIn return.
Langston Hughes
Good morning, daddy!Ain't you heardThe boogie-woogie rumbleOf a dream deferred?Listen closely:You'll hear their feetBeating out and beating out a -You thinkIt's a happy beat?Listen to it closely:Ain't you heardsomething underneathlike a -What did I say?Sure,I'm happy!Take it away!Dream BoogieHey, pop!Re-bop!Mop!Y-e-a-h!
Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Langston Hughes
Pleasured equallyIn seeking as in finding,Each detail minding,Old Walt went seekingAnd finding.
Langston Hughes
Out of love,No regrets--Though the goodnessBe wasted forever.Out of love,No regrets--Though the returnBe never.
Langston Hughes
Cheap little rhymesA cheap little tuneAre sometimes as dangerousAs a sliver of the moon.
Langston Hughes
Looks like what drives me crazyDon't have no effect on you--But I'm gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too.
Langston Hughes
Though you may hear me holler,And you may see me cry--I'll be dogged, sweet baby,If you gonna see me die.
Langston Hughes
I went down to the river,I set down on the bank.I tried to think but couldn't,So I jumped in and sank.
Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams,For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!True anyhow no matter how manyLiars use those words.
Langston Hughes
Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-
Langston Hughes
Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.
Langston Hughes
So since I'm still here livin',I guess I will live on.I could've died for love--But for livin' I was born.
Langston Hughes
Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows,Help us to seeThat without the dust the rainbowWould not be.
Langston Hughes
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
Langston Hughes
Life is for the living.Death is for the dead.Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.
Langston Hughes