Langston Hughes Quotes

Life is for the living.Death is for the dead.Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.

~ Langston Hughes

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

~ Langston Hughes

Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows,Help us to seeThat without the dust the rainbowWould not be.

~ 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

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

LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!True anyhow no matter how manyLiars use those words.

~ Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams,For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly.

~ Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

~ 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

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

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

Cheap little rhymesA cheap little tuneAre sometimes as dangerousAs a sliver of the moon.

~ Langston Hughes

Out of love,No regrets--Though the goodnessBe wasted forever.Out of love,No regrets--Though the returnBe never.

~ Langston Hughes

Pleasured equallyIn seeking as in finding,Each detail minding,Old Walt went seekingAnd finding.

~ Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

~ 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

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

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

God in his infinite wisdomDid not make me very wise-So when my actions are stupidThey hardly take God by surprise.

~ 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

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

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

When peoples cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.

~ 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

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

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

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

The sea is a desert of waves,A wilderness of water.

~ Langston Hughes

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

~ Langston Hughes

Joe has sense enough to knowHe is a god.So many gods don't know.

~ 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

Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.

~ Langston Hughes

Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul - the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.

~ Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

~ Langston Hughes

Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

~ Langston Hughes

I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class, and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everybody knows - except us - that all Negroes have rhythms, so they elected me class poet.

~ Langston Hughes

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.

~ Langston Hughes

Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.

~ Langston Hughes

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

~ Langston Hughes