Best Langston Hughes Quotes

Langston Hughes Quotes About Dreams, Race, Love, Freedom, Harlem, Poems & Inspirational! Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes was a prominent player in the movement’s literary and artistic output. Joplin, Missouri, was where he was born on February 1, 1902.’ Hughes initially started writing poetry while he was in elementary school, and one of his instructors exposed him to the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, both of whom Hughes would later credit as key inspirations. Hughes was also a contributing editor to the literary journal at his school, and he sent his work to several other poetry publications, all of which rejected his work.

The next year, Hughes went to Mexico with his father, where he spent the remainder of his high school years. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Poem was published in The Crisis magazine and received positive feedback. Following his return from Europe, Hughes enrolled at Columbia University, where he studied for only a short time; however, he rapidly became involved in Harlem’s burgeoning cultural movement, commonly referred to as the Harlem Renaissance.

While working, Hughes produced an enormous amount of work, such as poetry archives such as “The Weary Blues,” “Let America be America Again,” short story catalogs such as “The Way of White Folks,” novels such as “Not Without Laughter,” and short story collections such as “The Way of White Folks,” among many other works.

He was a true idol of the African-American community in New York City at the time, and via his literary works, he brought a whole new viewpoint on social activity to the fore. On May 22, 1967, Hughes passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Best Langston Hughes Quotes

1. “A dream deferred is a dream denied.” – Langston Hughes

2. “Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.” – Langston Hughes

3. “To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me—
That is my dream!” – Langston Hughes

4. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?… Or does it explode?” – Langston Hughes

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

6. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

7. ”As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and white—
and somewhat more free.” – Langston Hughes

8. “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

9. “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 for the dream that’s almost dead today.” – Langston Hughes

10. “My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig And Be Dug
In Return.” – Langston Hughes

11. “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

12. “When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,
When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,
When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!” – Langston Hughes

13. “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.” – Langston Hughes

14. “I live on a park bench.
You, Park Avenue.
Hell of a distance
Between us two.” – Langston Hughes

15. “Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.” ― Langston Hughes

16. “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

17. “I will not take ‘but’ for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy’s ‘but’ too long.” – Langston Hughes

18. “I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.” ― Langston Hughes

19. “The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.” – Langston Hughes

20. ”They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.” – Langston Hughes

21. “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

22. “I swear to the Lord, I still can’t see why democracy means everybody but me. ” ― Langston Hughes

23. “The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss” ― Langston Hughes

24. “To some people
Love is given,
To others
Only Heaven.” – Langston Hughes

25. “When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself.” – Langston Hughes

26. “When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.” – Langston Hughes

27. ”Night coming tenderly
Black like me.” – Langston Hughes

28. “Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break” – Langston Hughes

29. “Gather up In the arms of your love—Those who expect No love from above.” – Langston Hughes

30. “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

31. “Life doesn’t frighten me at all.” – Langston Hughes

32. “I’ve been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has frozen me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between ’em they done Tried to make me Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’– But I don’t care! I’m still here!” – Langston Hughes

33. “Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.” – Langston Hughes

34. “Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it … what you wish in your secret heart were not funny, but it is, and you must laugh. Humor is your own unconscious therapy. Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.” – Langston Hughes

35. “Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.” – Langston Hughes