Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

100 Famous Quotes By E.E. Cummings, The Author Of 100 Selected Poems

Famous As: Poet
Born On: October 14, 1894
Died On: September 3, 1962
Born In: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Died At Age: 67
American poet Edward Estlin Cummings, better known as simply ‘E.E’, was famous for the many poems that he wrote but at the same time he was also a playwright and painter of great repute. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied at Harvard University before embarking on a career as a prolific poet. He produced close to 3000 po-ems in his long career. Cummings was enlisted in the US Army during the First World War and was in fact arrested in France for being a suspected spy. He spent only three months in prison and it was the inspiration be-hind his well-known novel ‘The Enormous Room’. Cummings was an active traveler and throughout his youth, he travelled across Europe, Africa and Paris, in particular remained a city with which he shared a special bond. Due to his fame as a poet, playwright and essayist, he was honoured with the post of guest professor by Harvard University. Cum-mings was also honoured with the Bollinger Prize for Poetry in 1958 and is rightly considered among the most significant modern poets. Here are some of the selected quotes from his works that would definitely make for a compelling read. 
Listed In:
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

E. E. Cummings
To be nobody but 
yourself in a world 
which is doing its best day and night to make you like 
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle 
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

E. E. Cummings
Unbeing dead isn't being alive.

Unbeing dead isn't being alive.

E. E. Cummings
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It's always our self we find in the sea.

E. E. Cummings
Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.

Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.

E. E. Cummings
Whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.

Whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.

E. E. Cummings
I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air 
Alive 
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness

I will take the sun in my mouth and leap into the ripe air Alive with closed eyes to dash against darkness

E. E. Cummings
And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

E. E. Cummings
Lovers alone wear sunlight.

Lovers alone wear sunlight.

E. E. Cummings
Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense.

Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense.

E. E. Cummings
Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.

Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.

E. E. Cummings
Listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door; let’s go

Listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go

E. E. Cummings
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing 
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance

E. E. Cummings
I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

E. E. Cummings
The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.

The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.

E. E. Cummings
The three saddest things are the ill wanting to be well, the poor wanting to be rich, and the constant traveler saying 'anywhere but here'.

The three saddest things are the ill wanting to be well, the poor wanting to be rich, and the constant traveler saying 'anywhere but here'.

E. E. Cummings
Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star...

Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star...

E. E. Cummings
May came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

May came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as alone.

E. E. Cummings
Life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis

Life's not a paragraph And death i think is no parenthesis

E. E. Cummings
Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit

E. E. Cummings
The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.

E. E. Cummings
I like my body when it is with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more.

I like my body when it is with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more.

E. E. Cummings
I carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

I carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

E. E. Cummings
One's not half of two; two are halves of one.

One's not half of two; two are halves of one.

E. E. Cummings
She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still

She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still

E. E. Cummings
Most people are perfectly afraid of silence

Most people are perfectly afraid of silence

E. E. Cummings
Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

E. E. Cummings
Twice I have lived forever in a smile

Twice I have lived forever in a smile

E. E. Cummings
A wind has blown the rain away & the sky away & all the leaves away, & the trees stand. i think i, too, have known autumn too long.

A wind has blown the rain away & the sky away & all the leaves away, & the trees stand. i think i, too, have known autumn too long.

E. E. Cummings
And now you are and I am and we're a mystery which will never happen again.

And now you are and I am and we're a mystery which will never happen again.

E. E. Cummings