“Serve — and hate will die unborn. Love — and chains are broken.”

— Langston Hughes, "Alabama Earth", Golden Slippers, 1941

About Langston Hughes

1901 – 1967

American poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance, known for poems such as 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' and 'Harlem'.

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

“For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.”

“There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family.”

“Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.”

“Say, is not absence death to those who love?”

“Love is anterior to life, Posterior to death.”

“Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”