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Langston Hughes on Dreams

1902–1967 United States

← All quotes by Langston Hughes

4 quotes

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

You talk like they
don’t kick dreams
around downtown.

Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let America Be America Again (1935)

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?

Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Langston Hughes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.