“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
“There was no limit to what one man might do, if he gave all, and held back nothing.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Falling Free
“Against these forces -- an earth rotating, a sun lowering its angle in the sky, winds filling with rain and the geese arriving -- time is just a made-up thing, and recedes in importance, and should.”
― Richard Ford, quote from Canada
“Enchanted islands are hard to understand,' he said. 'I've always thought that. It worried me even as a child. The trouble is that you can never be sure where the enchantment begins and where it ends.”
― Robert Aickman, quote from The Wine-Dark Sea
“It matters very little whether your judgments of people are true or untrue, and very much whether they are kind or unkind,”
― Winston S. Churchill, quote from Churchill: The Power of Words
“Leaning close, Thomas whispered, “I think she’s gonna be my new ma.” Even though Thomas had never dared to think such a thing, now that he’d said it, it sounded like a good idea. Even though sometimes she got bossy, he knew that’s what ma’s did—told children what to do. But most of the time she was nice, and he really liked Mrs. Steadman. He knew she liked him, too. Rupert stared at Thomas, bug-eyed. “Your new ma? But … but she can’t!” “Why can’t she?” He shrugged. “She doesn’t have a husband, and she and my pa get along real good. She can be my new ma if she wants to.” Rupert shook his head. “My pa’s a deacon, and I know the rules. Your pa can’t marry her because she’s not part of our church.” “But she’s going to be.” Thomas stuck out his chin. “You’ll see.”
― Kim Vogel Sawyer, quote from Waiting for Summer's Return
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