Langston Hughes

"I trust in this world that's coming now, I believe in a power that people possess."

"What happens to a dream deferred?"

"Peace is a work of grace in the midst of a peace-destroying world."

"If there is no struggle there is no progress."

"We need writers who are willing to speak truth to power."

"My heart has known its winter, but it always comes to spring."

"You see, it's not the world that was my oppressor because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to believe that it's the truth."

"I want to write about real things, real people, and real conditions."

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."

"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often."

"There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation."

"The Negro is America's metaphor."

"What one has to do usually can be done."

"I tried to eat the sun for breakfast."

"Gather the stars if you wish it so, but my hands are full of dreams."

"The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery."

"I have discovered in life that there are ways of being happy that I had never considered before."

"There are those of us who are determined to be counted."

"Let my people go. Go back home to freedom land."

"To the tune of those Weary Blues."

"In the Harlem night, life swings like Salvation Army hymns."

"I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen."

"Dance because you are free."

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

"Be nobody's darling, be an individual."

"The so-called 'madness' of people is only the sanity of an abnormal world."

"I am going to tell you about my life."

"I will sing songs of the people."

"We need unity for strength and to build a better world."

"The dignity of manual labor."