Langston Hughes Quotes - Page 2

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

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.

Americans of good-will, the nice decent church people, the well-meaning liberals, the good hearted souls who themselves wouldn't lynch anyone, must begin to realize that they have to be more than passively good-hearted, more than church goingly Christian, and much more than word-of-mouth in the liberalism.

Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling.

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.

I dream a world... where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind. Of such I dream, my world!

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.

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

Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing You do not know I die?

There is no color line in death. I swear to the lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.

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

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

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.

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

Blues had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going.

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

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

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

Road's in front o' me, Nothin' to do but walk.

Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.

I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.

When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left.

America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!

If the government can set aside some spot for a elk to be a elk without being bothered, or a buffalo to be a buffalo without being shot down, there ought to be some place where a Negro can be a Negro without being Jim Crowed.

What 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?