79 Inspiring Quotes By Langston Hughes To Live By

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

  

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

Life , Like , Music

  

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

  

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.

Think

  

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

Life , Like

  

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

Life

  

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.

Like , Me

  

I loved my friend He went away from me There's nothing more to say The poem ends, Soft as it began- I loved my friend.

  

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.

  

Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.

Yourself

  

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

  

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.

  

Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry-- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.

Me

  

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.

  

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

  

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.

Like

  

To some people Love is given, To others Only Heaven.

  

I swear to the Lord,I still can't see,Why Democracy means,Everybody but me.

Me

  

Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.

  

I asked you, baby, If you understood- You told me that you didn't, But you thought you would.

Me

  

Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never.

Never

  

...the only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it,....

  

Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-

  

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose

Never

  

Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on

Together

  

The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss

Me

  

Cheap little rhymes A cheap little tune Are sometimes as dangerous As a sliver of the moon.

  

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.

  

When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.

  

I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

  

How still, How strangely still The water is today, It is not good For water To be so still that way. ~ "Sea Calm

  

Life is a egg you have to be patient and carefull with it or it will brake

Life

  

Sometimes a crumb falls From the tables of joy, Sometimes a bone Is flung. To some people Love is given, To others Only heaven.

  

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

  

LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words.

  

I wish the rent Was heaven sent.

  

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

  

Most musicians remain poor. But the music that they make, even if it does not bring them millions, gives millions of people happiness.

Music

  

7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.

  

The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.

Past

  

The Dream Keeper Bring me all of your dreams, You dreamer, Bring me all your Heart melodies That I may wrap them In a blue cloud-cloth Away from the too-rough fingers Of the world.

Me

  

Rest at pale evening... A tall slim tree... Night coming tenderly Black like me

Like , Me

  

I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.

Me

  

Pleasured equally In seeking as in finding, Each detail minding, Old Walt went seeking And finding.

  

What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Like

  

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

Life , Like

  

Frosting Freedom Is just frosting On somebody else's Cake-- And so must be Till we Learn how to Bake.

  

Life dosent frighten me at all.

Life , Me

  

Peace We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark They could not see Who had gained The victory.

  

Your explanation depresses me," I said. "Your nonsense depresses me," said Simple.

  

There is no color line in death.

  

What happens to a dream deferred?

  

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.

Life

  

Oppression Now 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.

  

I am so tired of waiting. Aren’t you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife and cut the world in two — and see what worms are eating at the rind.

  

American Heartbreak I am the American heartbreak-- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe-- The great mistake That Jamestown made Long ago.

  

Justice That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise: Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes.

  

They rung my bell to ask me. Could I recommend a maid. I said, yes, your momma.

  

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!

  

Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.

  

I look at my own body With eyes no longer blind— And I see that my own hands can make The world that’s in my mind. Then let us hurry, comrades, The road to find.

  

Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Life , Me

  

Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas

  

Impasse I could tell you If I wanted to, What makes me What I am. But I don't Really want to – And you don't Give a damn.

  

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Like

  

Color Wear it Like a banner For the proud-- Not like a shroud. Wear it Like a song Soaring high-- Not moan or cry.

Like

  

You see, books had been happening to me.

Me

  

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

Like

  

God in his infinite wisdom Did not make me very wise- So when my actions are stupid They hardly take God by surprise.

Me

  

I will not take ‘but’ for an answer.

  

As I learn from you, I guess you learn From me --- although You're older --- and white And somewhat more free.

Me

  

2 and 2 are 4. 4 and 4 are 8. But what would happen If the last 4 was late? And how would it be If one 2 was me? Or if the first 4 was you Divided by 2?

  

Because shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet.

  

The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.

  

Freedom Is a strong seed Planted In a great need. I live here, too. I want freedom Just as you.

  

For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.

Like

  

As much as they loved Negroes, Neroes didn't seem to love Michael and Anne.

  

Of course Covarrubias wasn't a negro, but how he caught the darky spirit!

  

Quiet Girl I would liken you To a night without stars Were it not for your eyes. I would liken you To a sleep without dreams Were it not for your songs.