The night is beautiful,
and so the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
so the eyes of my people
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
These are the beautiful lines Hughes wrote for his people. The pride of black men increased ten folds by this one man who chose to be brave.
A prolific writer! An egalitarian! A touching poet! A nationalist!
There are many things Hughes is known for. But most importantly, he is known for his courage to stand for his people in the times where black lives were controlled and oppressed.
Langston Mercer Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Missouri. Later on, after his parents' divorce, he went on to live in Mexico. There he lived with his grandparents for a few years and then shifted to Lincoln. It was in Lincoln that he grew passionate about poetry. He studied at Columbia University in New York city but decided to drop out of it. And despite that Hughes got noticed by the New York publishers and later on got his work published in the crisis magazine and became part of the Harlem creative community. Hughes is famously known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
Here are some inspiring Langston Hughes Quotes.
A dream deferred is a dream denied.
A true dreamer dreams a dream constantly. He is dedicated to complete the dream and each of his day starts and ends with his thoughts and actions converged to that dream. But a man who would rather postpone his dream stands in a doubtful situation as it's questionable if he really wants to complete his so-called dream. When he chooses to postpone his dream, he chooses the possibility of the dream to ever true.
We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.
Racism prevailed then in American society, and sadly, it still hasn't ceased to exist. And because of racism, writers aren't seen as artists or professionals but as black men. For this to change, we have to first end racism.
In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.
Black people were seriously enslaved and put down all over America. Their education as well as lifestyle was seriously compromised. And more than that, black children were bullied, black women were raped, black employees were paid less and black men faced many such atrocities. Hughes says that only in the field of writing, he did not become a victim of racism.
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
There are a plethora of qualities an artist must possess, but according to Hughes, one of them is to be brave, and he beautifully describes this here. He says that the artist must be given his freedom of choice, but whatever that choice may be, he must be courageous to do what he has chosen.
Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people—the beauty within themselves.
An artist can make the audience experience varied emotions. But Hughes that maybe the mission and the absolute goal of an artist is to make people feel beautiful, to understand their own beauty, to make them feel beautiful inside and out.
Continue reading some more Langston Hughes Quotes...
I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.
The word 'but' is very painful as per the perspective of Hughes. And that might be because of the hollow democracy of the government of America; when it comes to Negroes of the nations, the democracy did not follow an egalitarian approach. And, moreover, justified this behaviour. And Hughes is against this.
Writing is like traveling. It's wonderful to go somewhere, but you get tired of staying.
Here metaphorically, Hughes compares writing and traveling. He points out the similarities between the two. He says that it's good to keep writing, it is good to keep traveling, but when we stop, we become stagnant, which is mentally exhausting. To go on is the key is a hidden suggestion made in this quote.
I must never write when I do not want to write.
To do things of passion ardently is a good thing. But to force oneself to do a thing of passion drains all the passion from us as well as our activity. And this must be avoided.
I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
It is famously said that "Where there is a will, there is a way." And in my opinion, the vice versa of this is also true. If we truly want something, ways will automatically open in front of us, but if we're doubtful or have no will, the door will cease to exist. The only factor of getting what we want is what we want? How badly do we want it?
Few more Langston Hughes Quotes...
Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.
Politics is a world of harsh revelations, and it is a world of logic. And on the other hand, poetry is a dreamy world full of imagination. Both make no sense in each other's universes. To bring a poet into the world of poet is killing the poet. And when this happens, only poems can bring him back to life.
Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.
Democracy, in its very definition, is the power to the people, for the people and by the people. When we say democracy, the ultimate power lies in the hands of the people. The government works for the people and the people united are the rulers. But when conflict and fear is inflicted upon the people, true democracy does not exist.
I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.
A yet another powerful quote by Hughes. In this quote, Hughes asks a simple straight question to god, asking why everyone is involved in democracy but himself. By himself, he points towards black people.
Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.
A line from Hughes poetry means that we must live when we're alive for that is the only thing life is for. And death belongs to those who are already dead. To live not fully when alive benefits no one. Life must feel soothing and continuous, like a song, while death is a part of the music(note) that should be skipped.
I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
Hughes is repelled of the philosophy which says that it's okay if justice is served later if equality is established later. Hughes says that he wants things right, right now and not after his death.
When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself.
Many people dream of changing the world. But not many succeed. But not many bring out the change in themselves. Changes are made in the world by the people who have to power to change themselves.
Continue reading some more Langston Hughes Quotes...
Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.
This quote suggests that people must learn to chill and stay laid back and enjoy life. He says that though he likes a drink, another drink suits him better.
Humour is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it ... what you wish in your secret heart were not funny, but it is, and you must laugh. Humour is your own unconscious therapy. Like a welcome summer rain, Humour may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.
People have varied senses of humour. However, few can take the jokes upon themselves, and far fewer people can make jokes about themselves. Hughes comes from a school of thought that believes that we should remain light-hearted. And even on our failure, should we try and laugh though secretly deep in our heart we are sensitive to our failure. And when we learn to do this, we become our own therapists. And such therapy will freshen like sometimes nature freshens you up.
Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on.
Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.
Jazz was introduced to America by African American people. Hughes compares the lives of Negroes to a particular instrument added in jazz music, namely tom tom. The struggles, revolts, act of resistance and even the happiness and joy can be compared to the ardent beats of the tom tom, says Hughes.
To my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering 'I want to be white,' hidden in the aspirations of his people, to 'Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro—and beautiful!'
The black men were made to hate themselves eventually. Many of them thought of themselves to be ugly and even worthless. Many black people constantly thought they wanted to become white and had the hidden desire to become white. And Hughes does not understand this desire when black people are beautiful just the way they are.
