Langston Hughes Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas

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.

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

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

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.

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

I stay cool, and dig all jive, That's the way I stay alive.My motto, as I live and learn, isDig and be dugIn return.

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

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

Sometimes a crumb fallsFrom the tables of joy, Sometimes a boneIs flung.To some peopleLove is given, To othersOnly heaven.

What happens to a dream deferred?

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

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.

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.

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

Violent anger makes me physically ill.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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