Langston Hughes

I swear to the Lord I still can't see why Democracy means everybody but me.

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?

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I, too, sing America. I, too, am America.

I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread. Freedom Is a strong seed. Planted In a great need. I live here, too. I want freedom. Just as you.

Negroes, sweet and docile, meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day they change their mind!

I'm so tired of waiting, Aren't you, For the world to become a loving place?

Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.

Democracy will not come Today, this year, nor ever Through compromise and fear.

Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.

I, too, sing America. 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. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, 'Eat in the kitchen,' Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.

Humor is a way of saying something serious without being too serious.

I have been a victim of a kind of intellectual lynching.

I built my house near the sea. I built my house near the sea. And I love the sea. And I love the sea. And I love the sea.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.

Life is for the living, not for the dead.

I’m a Negro—and beautiful!

Negro artists, let’s create, even the most serious among us, our own beauty.

Put it this way: I am a Negro, and I am an American. I am a poet, and I am a writer. I am a human being, and I am black. I am a man, and I am a woman. I am an old man, and I am a young man. I am a child, and I am an adult. I am a fool, and I am a wise man. I am a saint, and I am a sinner.

Freedom is a strong seed planted in a great need.