Langston Hughes Quotes

Quotes about:

• The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.

  Langston Hughes

  Done, Way, Things Done

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes”, p.50, University of Missouri Press

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

  Langston Hughes

  Love, Inspirational, Change

  "Dreams" l. 1 (1929)

  544 Copy quote

• I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?

  Langston Hughes

  Beautiful, Tired, Waiting

  440 Copy quote
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  A world I dream where black or white,
  Whatever race you be,
  Will share the bounties of the Earth
  And every man is free.

  Langston Hughes

  Dream, Men, Race

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1941-1950”, p.259, University of Missouri Press

  426 Copy quote
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  When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

  Langston Hughes

  Men, World, Firsts

  Langston Hughes (2004). “Vintage Hughes”, Vintage

  387 Copy quote

• I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

  Langston Hughes

  Freedom, People, Needs

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Essays on art, race, politics, and world affairs”, p.416, University of Missouri Press

  341 Copy quote

• 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

  Life, Determination, Want

  Langston Hughes, Dolan Hubbard (2003). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes”

  322 Copy quote

• I, too, sing America. 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. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America.

  Langston Hughes

  Beautiful, Strong, Brother

  "I, Too" l. 1 (1925)

  382 Copy quote

• Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed -
  Let it be that great strong land of love
  Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
  That any man be crushed by one above.

  Langston Hughes

  Dream, Strong, Kings

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1921-1940”, p.131, University of Missouri Press

  341 Copy quote

• Reach Up Your Hand... and take a star.

  Langston Hughes

  Stars, Hands

  260 Copy quote

• Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.

  Langston Hughes

  Equality, Air, America

  Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”

  228 Copy quote

• When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left.

  Langston Hughes

  Running, Turns, Corners

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1941-1950”, p.210, University of Missouri Press

  5 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Love, Dream, Dry Up

  "Harlem" l. 1 (1951)

  293 Copy quote

• Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind.

  Langston Hughes

  Sweet, Humble, Mind

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1941-1950”, p.199, University of Missouri Press

  317 Copy quote

• Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it ... what you wish in your secret heart were not funny, but it is, and you must laugh. Humor is your own unconscious therapy. Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.

  Langston Hughes

  Summer, Rain, Heart

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Essays on art, race, politics, and world affairs”, p.525, University of Missouri Press

  205 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Artist, Black History

  Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper, Langston Hughes (1996). “Not So Simple: The "Simple" Stories by Langston Hughes”, p.35, University of Missouri Press

  243 Copy quote

• A dream deferred is a dream denied.

  Langston Hughes

  Dream, Denied

  "John B. King and Jidenna: Stop the assault on the American dream" by John B. King and Jidenna, edition.cnn.com. August 3, 2017.

  86 Copy quote

• The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.

  Langston Hughes

  Past, Blood, Sorrow

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.172, University of Missouri Press

  22 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Eggs, Patient, Life Is

  41 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Inspirational, Morning, Together

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1921-1940”, p.224, University of Missouri Press

  268 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Wedding, People, Soul

  Langston Hughes (2004). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Gospel plays, operas, and later dramatic works”, p.201, University of Missouri Press

  143 Copy quote

• I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.

  Langston Hughes

  Freedom, Rocks, Toes

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.150, University of Missouri Press

  86 Copy quote

• 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.

  Langston Hughes

  Alive, Way, Return

  39 Copy quote

• Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.

  Langston Hughes

  Home, Writing, Tonight

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.52, University of Missouri Press

  134 Copy quote

• Gather quickly
  Out of darkness
  All the songs you know
  And throw them at the sun
  Before they melt
  Like snow.

  Langston Hughes

  Song, Snow, Darkness

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.228, University of Missouri Press

  93 Copy quote

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