I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
Langston HughesRead
Negro blood is sure powerful, because just one drop of black blood makes a colored man. One drop--you are a Negro! . . . Black is powerful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the significance of racial identity and the power associated with being Black.
Langston Hughes highlights the profound impact of Black identity in society, suggesting that heritage is inescapable and powerful. The assertion that 'one drop' of Black blood defines a person as a Negro underscores the societal perception of race, illustrating how racial identity can shape an individual's experience and social standing.
Themes
IdentityRacePowerHeritageBlackness
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on racial identity, one might reference this quote to highlight the enduring impact of ancestry.
More from Langston Hughes
All quotes βMy writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.
Langston HughesRead
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.
Langston HughesRead
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Langston HughesRead
The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss
Langston HughesRead
The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.
Langston HughesRead
Similar quotes
Revolt is the mirror in which greed is forced to see itself.
Alice WalkerRead
It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness
Adrienne RichRead
Those sciences which govern the morals of mankind, such as Theology and Philosophy, make everything their concern: no activity is so private or so secret as to escape their attention or their jurisdiction.
Michel De MontaigneRead
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Cormac MccarthyRead
I think there is a tendency for people to get rigid and caught up in their beliefs of what is right and wrong, and they lose sight of humanity. Being human has to come first before right or wrong.
MatisyahuRead
Wherever we go, wherever we remain, the results of our actions follow us.
Gautama BuddhaRead