Langston Hughes - Dream Quotes

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

Langston Hughes
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
Melting pot Harlem-Harlem of honey and chocolate and caramel and rum and vinegar and lemon and lime and gall. Dusky dream Harlem rumbling into a nightmare tunnel where the subway from the Bronx keeps right on downtown.

Langston Hughes
Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.

Langston Hughes
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
You talk like they
don't kick dreams
around downtown.

Langston Hughes
Good evening, daddy
I know you've heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred

Langston Hughes
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay —
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

Langston Hughes
I dream a world... where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind. Of such I dream, my world!

Langston Hughes
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?

Langston Hughes
A certain amount
of nothing
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes
Why should it be my loneliness,
Why should it be my song,
Why should it be my dream
deferred
overlong?

Langston Hughes
There's a certain
amount of traveling
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes
What happens
to a dream deferred?
Daddy, ain't you heard?

Langston Hughes
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed —
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
….
O, let America be America again—
The land that has never been yet—
And yet must be—
The land where every man is free.
….
America never was America to me.
And yet, I swear this oath—
America will be!

Langston Hughes
Dream within a dream,
Our dream deferred.
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard?

Langston Hughes
Daddy, daddy, daddy,
All I want is you.
You can have me, baby —
but my lovin' days is through.
A certain amount
of impotence
in a dream deferred.

Langston Hughes