Quotes from The Collected Poems

Langston Hughes ·  736 pages

Rating: (14.6K votes)


Harlem

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, quote from The Collected Poems


“Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken-winged bird
that can not fly.

Hold fast to dreams
for when dreams go
life is a barren field
frozen with snow.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“To some people
Love is given,
To others
Only Heaven.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“America is a dream.
The poet says it was promises.
The people say it is promises—that will come true.
The people do not always say things out loud,
Nor write them down on paper.
The people often hold
Great thoughts in their deepest hearts
And sometimes only blunderingly express them,
Haltingly and stumbling say them,
And faultily put them into practice.
The people do not always understand each other.
But there is, somewhere there,
Always the trying to understand,
And the trying to say,
"You are a man. Together we are building our land.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“Gather up In the arms of your love—Those who expect No love from above.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems



“I wish the rent Was heaven sent.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“Life dosent frighten me at all.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems


“Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected Poems



“Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.”
― Langston Hughes, quote from The Collected 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

“Eric came to Macy's? Did he burst into flames the moment he passed the first cash register?”
― MaryJanice Davidson, quote from Undead and Unemployed


“There are so many impatient people in the world. It seems everyone wants something right this second. We don't want to wait in lines, we get fidgety when our food takes too long to cook, and we have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who holds us up from doing anything we want to do the moment we want to do it. I'm bothered right now that I'm having to wait till the end of this sentence to see what word I end up on. On, who knew? It's particularly hard to wait for things that are days or weeks or even months away. Calendars mock you, clocks pester you, and the rotation of the earth seems to slow by at least forty percent. I suppose, however, that if you were preparing to take over the world and you needed one final piece to fall into place, but that piece had to be slowly dragged over the dirt so it didn't die, that would be really hard to wait for. I'd feel sorry for whoever that happened to, but then again they were trying to take over the world and all.
So please, no sympathy for Azure.”
― Obert Skye, quote from Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra


“What could I do? I was beyond pissed off. Trevor not telling anyone about us was always a big issue between us. I understood his reasons and never pushed it. But when he made fun of guys who had the balls to come out of the closet? That was a line he shouldn’t’ve crossed. I hated he’d done it in front of me.” Edgard shoved a hand through his hair. “After dinner, the whole family loaded up and went to the big rodeo dance. I declined.

“I burned my bootheels getting to the g*y cowboy bar in Denver and hooked up with a dentist who was in town for the rodeo. I spent the night in his hotel room and didn’t see Trevor until the following afternoon when we had to compete.”

Chassie figured she wouldn’t much care for Trevor’s jealous reaction, but she wouldn’t be surprised by it.

“We sucked in the arena. Lost our chance for points or purse. Soon as we were alone he lit into me. We fought. Not with words. With our fists. We beat the shit out of each other, Chass. It was ugly.”

“Where’d it happen? Since you were always so discreet?”

“In the living quarters of the horse trailer. Trev said something. I said something back. He took the first punch. I landed the last. Christ, we were rolling around on the floor, bleeding—”

“Whoa—bleeding?”

Edgard closed his eyes. “When we were shoving each other some beer bottles got broken and we just kept going, stomping all over them. Trevor slipped and fell and I didn’t help him up, I just kept beating on him. So he has a cut on his back and I have a gash on my arm as a memento.”
― Lorelei James, quote from Rough, Raw, and Ready


“I was young once, you know. Truth be told, I still am. Now, if I can convince my mirror.”
― Julie Lessman, quote from A Heart Revealed


“Surrounded by madness, surrounded by hunger, surrounded by everything but death, I knew death was our only way out.”
― Harlan Ellison, quote from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream


Interesting books

Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
(30.6K)
Why Men Love Bitches...
by Sherry Argov
Platform
(13.1K)
Platform
by Michel Houellebecq
Gamer Girl
(4.1K)
Gamer Girl
by Mari Mancusi
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
(20.2K)
The Miseducation of...
by Emily M. Danforth
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
(17.1K)
The Wonderful Story...
by Roald Dahl
Maya's Notebook
(18.9K)
Maya's Notebook
by Isabel Allende

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.