320 Quotes by Langston Hughes

In America Negroes do not have to be told what fascism is, We know.

IslandWave of sorrow, Do not drown me now:I see the island Still ahead somehow.I see the island And its sands are fair:Wave of sorrow, Take me there.

Sometimes a crumb fallsFrom the tables of joy, Sometimes a boneIs flung.To some peopleLove is given, To othersOnly heaven.

I've known rivers:I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Joe has sense enough to knowHe is a god.So many gods don't know.

I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books — where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.

I will take your heart.I will take your soul out of your bodyAs though I were God.I will not be satisfiedWith the little words you say to me.I will not be satisfiedWith the touch of your handNor 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.

Just because I loves you–That's de reason whyMa soul is full of colorLike de wings of a butterfly.Just because I loves youThat's de reason whyMa heart's a fluttering aspen leafWhen you pass by.

I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.