Top 150 Langston Hughes Quotes (2024 Update)

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

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

3. “I’m so tired of waiting, aren’t you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?”

— Langston Hughes

Featured in: Quotes About Waiting

4. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

— Langston Hughes

5. “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?”

— Langston Hughes

6. “What happens to a dream deferred?”

— Langston Hughes

7. “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

8. “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.”

— Langston Hughes

9. “Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

11. “When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself.”

— Langston Hughes

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

12. “Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.”

— Langston Hughes

13. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or does it explode?”

— Langston Hughes

14. “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

15. “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

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

— Langston Hughes

17. “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed – Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.”

— Langston Hughes

Featured in: Strong Quotes

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

— Langston Hughes

19. “Keep your hand on the plow. Hold on.”

— Langston Hughes

20. “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

21. “Words Like Freedom There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like Liberty That almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

23. “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

Featured in: Artist Quotes

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

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

26. “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.”

— Langston Hughes

27. “Never look for a worm in the apple of your eye.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

29. “The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

31. “For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn’t write anything.”

— Langston Hughes

32. “I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.”

— Langston Hughes

33. “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.”

— Langston Hughes

Featured in: Real Quotes

34. “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.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

36. “America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath – America will be!”

— Langston Hughes

37. “The rhythm of life is a jazz rhythm.”

— Langston Hughes

38. “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

39. “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

40. “There is no color line in death.”

— Langston Hughes

41. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams...”

— Langston Hughes

42. “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.”

— Langston Hughes

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

— Langston Hughes

44. “For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.”

— Langston Hughes

45. “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

46. “Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.”

— Langston Hughes

47. “I got the Weary Blues And I can’t be satisfied.”

— Langston Hughes

48. “We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

— Langston Hughes

Featured in: Strong Quotes

49. “The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night And I love the rain.”

— Langston Hughes

50. “When poems stop talking about the moon and begin to mention poverty, trade unions, color, color lines and colonies, somebody tells the police.”

— Langston Hughes