Langston Hughes Quotes

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

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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.

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

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Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

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

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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.

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

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Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-

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

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

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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.

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Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry-
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

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Looks like what drives me crazy
Don't have no effect on you-
But I'm gonna keep on at it
Till it drives you crazy, too.

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Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

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Cheap little rhymes
A cheap little tune
Are sometimes as dangerous
As a sliver of the moon.

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Out of love,
No regrets-
Though the goodness
Be wasted forever.

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

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

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What happens to a dream deferred?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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God in his infinite wisdom
Did not make me very wise-
So when my actions are stupid
They hardly take God by surprise.

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I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

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

Hold fast to dreams
for when dreams go
life is a barren field
frozen with snow.

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The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

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Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

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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.

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