Langston Hughes Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

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

  Langston Hughes

  Dust, Rainbow, Helping

  44 Copy quote

• Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

  Langston Hughes

  Fall, Son, Dark

  Langston Hughes, Dolan Hubbard, Leslie Catherine Sanders (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Works for children and young adults: poetry, fiction, and other writing”, p.81, University of Missouri Press

  66 Copy quote

• America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!

  Langston Hughes

  America, Breaking Silence, Oath

  Langston Hughes (1970). “The poetry of the Negro, 1746-1970”

  70 Copy quote

• When poems stop talking about the moon and begin to mention poverty, trade unions, color, color lines and colonies, somebody tells the police.

  Langston Hughes

  Moon, Color, Talking

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Essays on art, race, politics, and world affairs”, p.270, University of Missouri Press

  17 Copy quote

• I wish the rent Was heaven sent.

  Langston Hughes

  Heaven Sent, Heaven, Wish

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1941-1950”, p.31, University of Missouri Press

  45 Copy quote

• 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

  Rain, Kissing, Water

  Langston Hughes (2015). “Sail Away”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

  211 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Life, Music, Death

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1921-1940”, p.251, University of Missouri Press

  27 Copy quote

• Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.

  Langston Hughes

  Home, Radio, Misery

  Langston Hughes, Dolan Hubbard (2003). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Works for children and young adults: poetry, fiction, and other writing”, p.173, University of Missouri Press

  14 Copy quote

• Life is a system of half-truths and lies, Opportunistic, convenient evasion.

  Langston Hughes

  Inspirational Life, Lying, Half

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.141, University of Missouri Press

  14 Copy quote

• I will not take "but" for an answer.

  Langston Hughes

  Attitude, Answers, Literature

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Early Simple Stories”, University of Missouri

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Powerful, Men, Blood

  13 Copy quote

• For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn't write anything.

  Langston Hughes

  Writing, Worst, Best Poem

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes”, p.65, University of Missouri Press

  21 Copy quote

• Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!

  Langston Hughes

  Lying, Land, Rivers

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

  35 Copy quote

• Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.

  Langston Hughes

  Dream, America, Used

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

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Langston Hughes

  Strong, Brother, Laughing

  "I, Too" l. 1 (1925)

  18 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Arms, No Love

  23 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Song, Rain, Sleep

  Langston Hughes, Dolan Hubbard (2003). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Works for children and young adults: poetry, fiction, and other writing”, p.52, University of Missouri Press

  7 Copy quote

• It has seemed to me that most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been.

  Langston Hughes

  Country, Race, People

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes”, p.38, University of Missouri Press

  8 Copy quote

• Believing everything she read In the daily news, (No in-between to choose) She thought that only One side won, Not that BOTH Might lose.

  Langston Hughes

  Believe, News, Might

  Langston Hughes (2011). “The Panther and the Lash”, p.57, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

• 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. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.

  Langston Hughes

  Beautiful, Strong, Dark

  Langston Hughes (2002). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: Essays on art, race, politics, and world affairs”, p.36, University of Missouri Press

  24 Copy quote

• There is no color line in art.

  Langston Hughes

  Color, Lines

  "Simple's Uncle Sam: With a New Introduction by Akiba Sullivan Harper".

  13 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  Night, Black, Depth

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The poems, 1921-1940”, p.22, University of Missouri Press

  15 Copy quote

• Money and art are far apart.

  Langston Hughes

  Art

  Langston Hughes (2001). “The Poems, 1951-1967”, p.222, University of Missouri Press

  18 Copy quote

• 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. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

  Langston Hughes

  Sleep, Sunset, New Orleans

  "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" l. 1 (1921)

  20 Copy quote

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

  Langston Hughes

  White, Black, Prejudice

  Langston Hughes (2015). “The Best of Simple”, p.19, Hill and Wang

  16 Copy quote

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