The Best Langston Hughes quotes

Life doesn’t frighten me at all. — 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

Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I’m still pulling. — Langston Hughes

My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America. — Langston Hughes

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

Life is a system of half–truths and lies, Opportunistic, convenient evasion. — Langston Hughes

One of the great needs of Negro children is to have books about themselves and their lives that can help them be proud. — Langston Hughes

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

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. — Langston Hughes

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. — Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken–winged bird that cannot fly. — Langston Hughes

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. — Langston Hughes

A dream deferred is a dream denied. — Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred? — Langston Hughes

You talk like they don’t kick dreams around downtown. — Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? … Or does it explode? — Langston Hughes

There’s a certain amount of traveling in a dream deferred. — Langston Hughes

Good morning, daddy! Ain’t you heard The boogie–woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? • • • • You think It’s a happy beat? — Langston Hughes

Gather out of star–dust, Earth–dust, Cloud–dust, Storm–dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream–dust, Not for sale. — Langston Hughes

Good evening, daddy! Ain’t you heard The boogie–woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Trilling the treble And twining the bass Into midnight ruffles Of cat–gut lace. — Langston Hughes

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

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. — Langston Hughes

To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening Beneath a tall tree While night comes on gently, Dark like me–That is my dream! — Langston Hughes

X 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7–love. — 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

Out of love, No regrets––Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets––Though the return Be never. — Langston Hughes

Gather up In the arms of your love–Those who expect No love from above. — Langston Hughes

To some people Love is given, To others Only Heaven. — Langston Hughes

I do not want no pretty woman. First thing you know, you fall in love with her–then you got to kill somebody about her. She’ll make you so jealous, you’ll bust! — Langston Hughes

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

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night And I love the rain. — Langston Hughes

Love is a naked shadow, On a gnarled and naked tree. — Langston Hughes

While over Alabama earth These words are gently spoken: Serve and hate will die unborn. Love and chains are broken. — Langston Hughes

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

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

Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better. — Langston Hughes

Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro–and beautiful! — Langston Hughes

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

The Jewish people and the Negro people both know the meaning of Nordic supremacy. We have both looked into the eyes of terror. — Langston Hughes

My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind. — Langston Hughes

Sometimes I wish the public were equally aware of the men of our race in the cultural fields. You, for instance, have you ever bought a book by a Negro writer? — Langston Hughes

Certainly there is, for the American Negro artist who can escape the restrictions the more advanced among his own group would put upon him, a great field of unused material ready for his art. — 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 aren?t it doesn?t matter. — Langston Hughes

Negroes–sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day–They change their mind. — Langston Hughes

Negroes Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day They change their minds! Wind In the cotton fields, Gentle breeze: Beware the hour It uproots trees! — Langston Hughes

There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free. — Langston Hughes

Frosting Freedom Is just frosting On somebody else’s Cake––And so must be Till we Learn how to Bake. — Langston Hughes

Liberty! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words. — Langston Hughes

I am the American heartbreak–The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe. — Langston Hughes

American Heartbreak I am the American heartbreak––The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe––The great mistake That Jamestown made Long ago. — Langston Hughes

In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing. — Langston Hughes

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

I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa. — Langston Hughes

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

Justice That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise: Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes. — Langston Hughes

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

Rest at pale evening… A tall slim tree… Night coming tenderly Black like me — Langston Hughes

Negro blood is sure powerful, because just one drop of black blood makes a colored man. One drop––you are a Negro! . . . Black is powerful. — Langston Hughes

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

To fling my arms wide In the face of the sun, Dance! Whirl! Whirl! Till the quick day is done. Rest at pale evening . . . A tall, slim tree . . . Night coming tenderly Black like me. — Langston Hughes

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

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. — Langston Hughes

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

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. — Langston Hughes