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I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.
Langston Hughes
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Langston Hughes
Age: 66 †
Born: 1901
Born: February 1
Died: 1967
Died: May 22
Biographer
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Joplin
Missouri
James Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes
Democracy
Looking
Black
Take
Long
Negroes
Answer
Answers
More quotes by Langston Hughes
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.
Langston Hughes
A dream deferred is a dream denied.
Langston Hughes
Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on
Langston Hughes
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
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
Well, when Christ comes back this time, I hope He comes back mad His own self. I hope He drives the Jim Crowers out of their high places, every living last one of them from Washington to Texas.
Langston Hughes
Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.
Langston Hughes
I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.
Langston Hughes
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
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.
Langston Hughes
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?
Langston Hughes
Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.
Langston Hughes
A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.
Langston Hughes
Harriet Tubman lived to see the harvest.
Langston Hughes
We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.
Langston Hughes
They [the police] learned something from them Harlem riots. They used to beat your head right in public, but now they only beat it after they get you down to the station house.
Langston Hughes
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair
Langston Hughes
Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.
Langston Hughes
It is the duty of the younger Negro artist . . . to change through the force of his art that old whispering I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro - and beautiful!
Langston Hughes
Frosting Freedom Is just frosting On somebody else's Cake-- And so must be Till we Learn how to Bake.
Langston Hughes