Langston Hughes: Trending quotes

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Langston Hughes: 158 quotes22 likes

“You talk like they
don’t kick dreams
around downtown.”

Langston Hughes

"Comment on Curb"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.”

Langston Hughes

"Democracy"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.”

Langston Hughes

"Song for a Dark Girl" (l. 11-12), from Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927)

“For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay —
Except the dream that's almost dead today.”

Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again (1935)

“Good evening, daddy
I know you’ve heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred”

Langston Hughes

"Boogie: 1 a.m."
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“The night is beautiful,
So are the faces of my people.”

Langston Hughes

"My People," in the magazine Poems in Crisis (October 1923); reprinted in The Weary Blues (1926)

“I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

Langston Hughes

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," from The Weary Blues (1926)

“Why should it be my loneliness,
Why should it be my song,
Why should it be my dream
deferred
overlong?”

Langston Hughes

"Tell Me"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you.”

Langston Hughes

"Theme from English B"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“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

Let America Be America Again (1935)

“You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word “Negro” is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown. My father was a darker brown. My mother an olive-yellow.”

Langston Hughes

The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, V. 13, The Big Sea (2002), p. 36
The Big Sea (1940)

“For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.”

Langston Hughes

The Big Sea (1940)

“O, let America be America again —
The land that never has been yet —
And yet must be — the land where every man is free.”

Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again (1935)

“Daddy, daddy, daddy,
All I want is you.
You can have me, baby —
but my lovin’ days is through.
A certain amount
of impotence
in a dream deferred.”

Langston Hughes

"Same in Blues"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“The instructor said, Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you —
Then, it will be true.”

Langston Hughes

"Theme from English B"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek —
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.”

Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again (1935)

“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

Let America Be America Again (1935)

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

Langston Hughes

"Alabama Earth (at Booker Washington's grave)," from the anthology Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers (1941), ed. Arna Bontemps

“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.”

Langston Hughes

"I, Too", in the magazine Survey Graphic (March 1925); reprinted in Selected Poems (1959); it is also often referred to as "I, Too, Sing America"