Authors — Quotes

Langston Hughes Quotes: 20

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams,For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly.
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.
Life is for the living.Death is for the dead.Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.
The Collected Poems
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
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.
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
Looks like what drives me crazyDon't have no effect on you--But I'm gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too.
Selected Poems
HarlemWhat happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.Or does it explode?
The Collected Poems
I stay cool, and dig all jive,That's the way I stay alive.My motto, as I live and learn, isDig and be dugIn return.
Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows,Help us to seeThat without the dust the rainbowWould not be.
Though you may hear me holler,And you may see me cry--I'll be dogged, sweet baby,If you gonna see me die.
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.
Selected Poems
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.
Out of love,No regrets--Though the goodnessBe wasted forever.Out of love,No regrets--Though the returnBe never.
Selected Poems
Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-
Cheap little rhymesA cheap little tuneAre sometimes as dangerousAs a sliver of the moon.