Langston Hughes Quotes

During the Great Depression, African Americans were faced with problems that were not unlike those experienced by the most disadvantaged groups in society. The Great Depression had a leveling effect, and all groups really experienced hard times: poor whites, poor blacks.

I was brought up on a council estate. I know what it's like to be poor.

Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Poverty's potential for character building is far overrated.

When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.

I came from poverty and was part of those circumstances.

As far as I was concerned, the Depression was an ill wind that blew some good. If it hadn't occurred, my parents would have given me my college education. As it was, I had to scrabble for it.

I come from a poor family.

I grew up poor.

My background's working class. My parents had to work to make ends meet. We don't come from any sense of privilege.

My mom was born poor, raised poor, and was going to die poor.

l had a job, and if you had a job in the depression you were rich.

Most people are poor at some time in their lives. But poverty is no excuse for committing crime.

People who didn't know the depression just don't know what being poor means.

A host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood, so there was always a sense of struggle, but we had hope.

The kids who take up athletics actually come from modest to poor backgrounds. They make it on their own steam; some of them don't even have the basic means like shoes and enough food to eat.

Poverty and oysters always seem to go together.

The people who pay the biggest price are those who are struggling.

My people are poor and I am one of them.

Poverty often hides her charms under an ugly mask; yet thousands have been forced into greatness by their very struggle to keep the wolf from the door.

Being poor doesn't mean being ordinary.

Having grown up in dire poor, the thing that I hated the most in life was poverty.

You have never been poor, and never known what ambition is.

Poverty breeds a lot of things. When people are desperate and trying to survive, they do drastic things.