Quote

I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.

Langston Hughes

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Answer
Answers
Democracy
Looking
Black
Take
Long
Negroes

More quotes by Langston Hughes

Image
There's a certain amount of traveling in a dream deferred.
Langston Hughes
Image
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!
Langston Hughes
Image
When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself
Langston Hughes
Image
To some people Love is given, To others Only Heaven.
Langston Hughes
Image
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
Image
Everybody should take each other as they are, white, black, Indians, Creole. Then there would be no prejudice, nations would get along.
Langston Hughes
Image
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
Image
Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.
Langston Hughes
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.
Langston Hughes
Image
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
Image
As long as what is is-and Georgia is Georgia-I will take Harlem for mine. At least, if trouble comes, I will have my own window to shoot from.
Langston Hughes
Image
For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn't write anything.
Langston Hughes
Image
When I were a young man, I used to play baseball and steal bases just like Jackie Robinson. If the empire would rule me out, I would get mad and hit the empire.
Langston Hughes
Image
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
Image
I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.
Langston Hughes
Image
Hard as I try, daddy-o, I really do not like concert singers. They are always singing in some foreign language.
Langston Hughes
Image
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