Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged…

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

Sourced

“Dreams,” from the anthology Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers, ed. Arna Bontemps (1941)

Other Langston Hughes Quotes

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. - View Quote Details on I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world…
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek —
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. - View Quote Details on I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I…
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree. - View Quote Details on Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.
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? - View Quote Details on What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up…
While over Alabama earth
These words are gently spoken:
Serve — and hate will die unborn.
Love — and chains are broken. - View Quote Details on While over Alabama earth
These words are gently spoken:
Serve — and…
The night is beautiful,
So are the faces of my people. - View Quote Details on The night is beautiful,
So are the faces of my people.
Good evening, daddy
I know you’ve heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred - View Quote Details on Good evening, daddy
I know you’ve heard
The boogie-woogie rumble…
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. - View Quote Details on Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed —
Let…
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath —
America will be! - View Quote Details on O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America…
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. - View Quote Details on I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They…