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
Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the deities people worship are merely creations of human imagination and not inherently powerful or divine.
In this quote, Langston Hughes reflects on the nature of gods as constructs of human culture, emphasizing that the various representations of deities—whether they are made of ivory, ebony, or diamond-jade—are artificial and ultimately reflect human desires, fears, and aspirations. This perspective invites people to question the authenticity and origin of their beliefs and urges recognition that these 'gods' serve more to represent human struggles than to embody actual divine power.
Themes
GodsBeliefHuman CreationPhilosophyCulture
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of belief systems, one might quote Hughes to highlight how societies create their own gods.
More from Langston Hughes
All quotes →My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.
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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.
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An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
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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.
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Be famous. Be a big social experiment in getting what you don't want. Find value in what we've been taught is worthless. Find good in what the world says is evil. I'm giving you my life because I want the whole world to know you. I wish the whole world would embrace what it hates. Find what you're afraid of most and go live there.
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Were the happiness of the next world is as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.
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There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.
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I feel shame, not for the wrong things I have done, but for the right things that I have failed to do.
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In relation to God, we are like a thief who has burgled the house of a kindly householder and been allowed to keep some of the gold. From the point of view of the lawful owner this gold is a gift; Form the point of view of the burglar it is a theft. He must go and give it back. It is the same with our existence. We have stolen a little of God's being to make it ours. God has made us a gift of it. But we have stolen it. We must return it.
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What is the mirror of Being? Non-being. Bring non-being as your gift, if you are not a fool.
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