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Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

— Langston Hughes Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

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More quotes by Langston Hughes

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

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

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.

The night is beautiful,
So are the faces of my people.

Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

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William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Langston Hughes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.