Langston Hughes: Quotes about life

Langston Hughes was American writer and social activist. Explore interesting quotes on life.
Langston Hughes: 158 quotes22 likes

“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

Source: The Collected Poems

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

Langston Hughes

Source: The Collected Poems

“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

Let America Be America Again (1935)

“Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.”

Langston Hughes

"Dreams," from the anthology Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers, ed. Arna Bontemps (1941)

“Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records — Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.”

Langston Hughes

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

“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