“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

The quote "Negroes Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day They change their minds!…" is famous quote attributed to Langston Hughes (1902–1967), American writer and social activist.

Last update April 18, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Langston Hughes photo
Langston Hughes79
American writer and social activist 1902–1967

Related quotes

“Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know.
-Songs of Sapphique”

Catherine Fisher book Incarceron

Source: Incarceron

Arthur Hugh Clough photo

“Loving—if the answering breast
Seem not to be thus possessed,
Still in hoping have a care;
If it do, beware, beware!
But if in yourself you find it,
Above all things—mind it, mind it!”

Arthur Hugh Clough Love, not Duty

Love, Not Duty, st. 5.

Jack Kerouac photo

“Sweet life continues in the breeze, in the golden fields.”

Jack Kerouac book Book of Sketches

Source: Book of Sketches

Muhammad photo

“People, beware of injustice, for injustice shall be darkness on the Day of Judgment.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Narrated in Mosnad Ahmad, #5798, and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #2447.
Sunni Hadith

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Franz Liszt photo

“Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.”

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

Malcolm X photo

“The field Negro was beaten from morning to night; he lived in a shack, in a hut; he wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master, but that field Negro — remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he'd die. If someone came to the field Negro and said, "Let's separate, let's run," he didn't say, "Where we going?"”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

He'd say, "Any place is better than here."
Speech (9 November 1963). p. 11.
Malcolm X Speaks (1965)

William Cowper photo

“Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day
(Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

"The Needless Alarm, Moral" (1794).

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve photo

“Let us beware of irony when making judgements. Of all the dispositions of the mind, irony is the least intelligent.”

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869) French literary critic

Gardons-nous de l'ironie en jugeant. De toutes les dispositions de l'esprit, l'ironie est la moins intelligente.
Notebook entry, February 24, 1848, cited from Les cahiers de Sainte-Beuve (Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1876) p. 75; Christopher Prendergast The Classic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) p. 244.

Thomas Dunn English photo

“That was a day of delight and wonder.
While lying the shade of the maple trees under—
He felt the soft breeze at its frolicksome play;
He smelled the sweet odor of newly mown hay.”

Thomas Dunn English (1819–1902) American state and federal politician

Under the Trees, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 494.

Related topics