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Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.Langston Hughes
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Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.Langston Hughes
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Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows, Help us to see That without the dust the rainbow Would not be.Langston Hughes
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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.Langston Hughes
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Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.Langston Hughes
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Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-Langston Hughes
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LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words.Langston Hughes
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Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.Langston Hughes
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Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.Langston Hughes
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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.Langston Hughes
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Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry-- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.Langston Hughes
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Looks like what drives me crazy Don't have no effect on you-- But I'm gonna keep on at it Till it drives you crazy, too.Langston Hughes
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Cheap little rhymes A cheap little tune Are sometimes as dangerous As a sliver of the moon.Langston Hughes
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Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never.Langston Hughes
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Pleasured equally In seeking as in finding, Each detail minding, Old Walt went seeking And finding.Langston Hughes
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What happens to a dream deferred?Langston Hughes
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Good morning, daddy! Ain't you heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Listen closely: You'll hear their feet Beating out and beating out a -You think It's a happy beat? Listen to it closely: Ain't you heardsomething underneathlike a -What did I say? Sure, I'm happy! Take it away! Dream BoogieHey, pop! Re-bop! Mop! Y-e-a-h!Langston Hughes
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I stay cool, and dig all jive, That's the way I stay alive. My motto, as I live and learn, is Dig and be dug In return.Langston Hughes
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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
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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.Langston Hughes
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God in his infinite wisdom Did not make me very wise- So when my actions are stupid They hardly take God by surprise.Langston Hughes
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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.Langston Hughes
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I will take your heart. I will take your soul out of your body As though I were God.I will not be satisfied With the little words you say to me. I will not be satisfied With the touch of your hand Nor the sweet of your lips alone. I will take your heart for mine. I will take your soul. I will be God when it comes to you.Langston Hughes
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Words Like FreedomThere are words like FreedomSweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like LibertyThat almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.Langston Hughes
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I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.Langston Hughes
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When peoples cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.Langston Hughes
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People up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter–and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July.Langston Hughes
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Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in KansasLangston Hughes
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My old man's a white old man And my old mother's black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I'm sorry for that evil wish And now i wish her well My old man died in a fine big house My Ma died in a shack. I wonder were i'm going to die, Being neither white nor black?Langston Hughes
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I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books – where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.Langston Hughes
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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. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, " Eat in the kitchen, " Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America.Langston Hughes
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I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn I dream a world where all Will know sweet freedom's way, Where greed no longer saps the soul Nor avarice blights our day. A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free, Where wretchedness will hang its head And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind- Of such I dream, my world! .Langston Hughes
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Question and AnswerDurban, Birmingham, Cape Town, Alabama, Johannesburg, Watts, The earth around Struggling, fighting, Dying--for what? A world to gain. Groping, hoping, Waiting--for what? A world to gain. Dreams kicked asunder, Why not go under? There's a world to gain. But suppose I don't want it, Why take it? To remake it.Langston Hughes
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The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.Langston Hughes
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Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.Langston Hughes
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Joe has sense enough to know He is a god. So many gods don't know.Langston Hughes
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Sometimes a crumb falls From the tables of joy, Sometimes a bone Is flung. To some people Love is given, To others Only heaven.Langston Hughes
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OppressionNow dreams Are not available To the dreamers, Nor songs To the singers. In some lands Dark night And cold steel Prevail-- But the dream Will come back, And the song Break Its jail.Langston Hughes
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Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.Langston Hughes
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Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.Langston Hughes
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Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul - the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.Langston Hughes
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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
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Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.Langston Hughes
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I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class, and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everybody knows - except us - that all Negroes have rhythms, so they elected me class poet.Langston Hughes
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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.Langston Hughes
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Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.Langston Hughes
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An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.Langston Hughes
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Very early in life, it seemed to me that there was a relationship between the problems of the Negro people in America and the Jewish people in Russia, and that the Jewish people's problems were worse than ours.Langston Hughes
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Violent anger makes me physically ill.Langston Hughes
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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.Langston Hughes