Langston Hughes Quotes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.

Most musicians remain poor. But the music that they make, even if it does not bring them millions, gives millions of people happiness.

Sometimes a crumb falls From the tables of joy, Sometimes a bone Is flung. To some people Love is given, To others Only heaven.

Frosting Freedom Is just frosting On somebody else's Cake-- And so must be Till we Learn how to Bake.

Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows, Help us to see That without the dust the rainbow Would not be.

I dream a world... where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind. Of such I dream, my world!

Everybody should take each other as they are, white, black, Indians, Creole. Then there would be no prejudice, nations would get along.

The rhythm of life is a jazz rhythm

To some people Love is given, To others Only Heaven.

It has seemed to me that most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been.

Pleasured equally In seeking as in finding, Each detail minding, Old Walt went seeking And finding.

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

I will not take "but" for an answer.

I don't dare start thinking in the morning. I don't dare start thinking in the morning. If I thought thoughts in bed, Them thoughts would bust my head-- So I don't dare start thinking in the morning.

We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.

Don't come giving me, who's old enough to die and too near blind to create anything any more anyhow, a great big banquet that you eat up in honor of your own stomachs as much as in honor of me- who's toothless and can't eat.

These feet have walked ten thousand miles working for white folks and another ten thousand keeping up with colored.

This morning I paid seventy cents for two little old dried-up slivers of bacon and one cockeyed egg. It took me till noon to get my appetite back.

Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.

I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

Keep your hand on the plow. Hold on.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

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.

I stay cool, and dig all jive, That's the way I stay alive. My motto, as I live and learn, is Dig and be dug In return.

Peace We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark They could not see Who had gained The victory.

Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.

It is the duty of the younger Negro artist . . . to change through the force of his art that old whispering "I want to be white," hidden in the aspirations of his people, to "Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro - and beautiful!"

Harriet Tubman lived to see the harvest.

Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.

A dog gets lonesome just like a human. He wants to associate with other dogs, but when they take him out, the poor dog is on a leash and cannot run around.

We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.

I asked you, baby, If you understood- You told me that you didn't, But you thought you would.

Words Like Freedom There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like Liberty That almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.

For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn't write anything.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?

The depression brought everybody down a peg or two. And the Negroes had but few pegs to fall.

A picture, to be an interesting picture, must be more than a picture, otherwise it is only a reproduction of an object, and not an object of value in itself.

Your explanation depresses me," I said. "Your nonsense depresses me," said Simple.

This is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America - this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.

I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.

Blues had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going.