Quotes from Selected Poems

Langston Hughes ·  297 pages

Rating: (5.9K votes)


“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, quote from Selected Poems


“Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the goodness
Be wasted forever.

Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the return
Be never.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from Selected Poems


“The sea is a desert of waves,
A wilderness of water.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from Selected Poems


“I will take your heart.
I will take your soul out of your body
As though I were God.
I will not be satisfied
With the little words you say to me.
I will not be satisfied
With the touch of your hand
Nor the sweet of your lips alone.
I will take your heart for mine.
I will take your soul.
I will be God when it comes to you.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from Selected Poems


“The speaker catches fire
looking at their faces.
His words
jump down to stand
in listener's places.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from Selected Poems



“Joe has sense enough to know
He is a god.
So many gods don't know.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from Selected Poems


About the author

Langston Hughes
Born place: in Joplin, Missouri, The United States
Born date February 1, 1902
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Forgetting who you are is so much more complicated than simply forgetting your name. It's also forgetting your dreams. Your aspirations. What makes you happy. What you pray you'll never have to live without. It's meeting yourself for the first time, and not being sure of your first impression.”
― Jessica Brody, quote from Unremembered


“McDonald’s, he thought. Why couldn’t she have wanted Mickey D’s. Or Pizza Hut. Taco Hell—”
― J.R. Ward, quote from The Shadows


“I years had been from home,
And now, before the door,
I dared not open, lest a face
I never saw before
Stare vacant into mine
And ask my business there.
My business,—just a life I left,
Was such still dwelling there?”
― Emily Dickinson, quote from The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson


“That night, just before I drifted off, I realized why. It was because I was certain that if I ever gave in to him in that way, if I surrendered to that kiss, I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from falling for him.”
― Bella Forrest, quote from A Shade of Vampire


“She looked at me like I was suddenly her whole world. I felt that look sear right into my heart. Ain’t no one ever looked up on me with such grace, with such trust before, and I felt humbled that she chose to gift it to me
… All anyone ever saw when they looked at me was the white trash ex-gang member from the Heighter-famed trailer park across town.
But not her.
Fuck knows why, but Pix only ever saw more.”
― Tillie Cole, quote from Sweet Fall


Interesting books

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
(33.1K)
An Astronaut's Guide...
by Chris Hadfield
The Prestige
(14.8K)
The Prestige
by Christopher Priest
Astonishing X-Men, Volume 1: Gifted
(23.6K)
Astonishing X-Men, V...
by Joss Whedon
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
(28.5K)
The Mother Tongue: E...
by Bill Bryson
The Other Queen
(37K)
The Other Queen
by Philippa Gregory
Claimed
(14.6K)
Claimed
by Evangeline Anderson

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.