Inspiring & Motivational Quotes by American Poet, e.e. cummings

Get your Daily Dose of Inspiring and Motivating Quotes with these Life-Changing Ones by e.e. cummings!

We’ve also added some key things about e.e. cummings and his family throughout this post to help you learn more about his life and what inspired him.

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” –e. e. cummings

Things to know about e.e. cummings

• e.e. cummings was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, MA, making him a Libra.
• His full name was: Edward Estlin Cummings. Most of his friends and family called him Estlin.
• He died of a stroke at age 67, on September 3, 1962, in New Hampshire.
• During his 67 years, e.e. cummings wrote roughly 2,900 poems, 4 plays, 2 autobiographies, and some essays. He was also a painter.

Want to learn more about e.e. cummings? Head over to the awesome site, The Harvard Advocate 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

• The Cummings family was prosperous and well-respected.
• His home as a child in Cambridge was on 104 Irving Street. Years later, cookbook writer, Julia Childs would move in across the street.
• The family was the first in Cambridge to have a telephone put in their home.
• Estlin’s father and mother had a huge influence on him throughout his life.
• His mother inspired a love of language & art in him and motivated him to both write & sketch.
• Estlin’s father was a well-respected professor of sociology and political science at Harvard for nine years.
• He left Harvard in 1900 to become a minister in Boston, at the Old South Church.

“A good book has no ending.” –e. e. cummings

• Before he was even 9 years old, he was already writing poetry.
• He wrote one poem every day as a child.
• Estlin’s first book of his poems was entitled, Tulips and Chimneys. (Check out the link at the end of this post to purchase a copy from Amazon.)

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” –e. e. cummings

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” –e.e. cummings

• From 1911-1915, e.e. cummings attended Harvard.
• He received a Bachelor of Arts and graduated magna cum laude.
• In 1916, he went back and earned his Master of Arts.

“Listen: There’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go!” — 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.” — e.e. cummings

• For the majority of his adult life, Estlin lived in a small apartment at 4 Patchin Place in Greenwich Village.
• He found it difficult to find a publisher who was interested in publishing his work, so he initially self-published his own writings.
• He never made any significant amount of money from all of his writings, and even received money to help with his living costs from his mother as an adult.

“The symbol of all art is the prism. The goal is destructive. To break up the white light of objective realism into the secret glories it contains.” — e.e. cummings

“One’s not half of two; two are halves of one.” — e.e. cummings

• e.e. cummings was married twice, and possibly three times. (The third relationship is debatable if they ever formally married.)
  • Elaine Thayer – less than one year in 1924
  • Anne Minnerly Barton – from 1929 to 1932
  • And the final love of his life, was Marion Morehouse from 1932 until his death in 1962.

“Nobody loses all the time.” — e.e. cummings

“An intelligent person fights for lost causes, realizing that others are merely effects.” — e.e. cummings

“I don’t like the memories because the tears come easily, and once again I break my promise to myself for this day. It’s a constant battle. A war between remembering and forgetting.” — e.e. cummings

• Estlin’s parents had a horrible car accident in 1926, killing his father and severely injuring his mother.
  • Their car was struck by a train, cutting the car in half.
• He was greatly impacted by the tragedy of his father’s death, whom he had admired and been impressed by throughout his life.
• This resulted in Estlin starting a new phase in his artistic endeavors.

“Yours is the light by which my spirit’s born; you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.” — 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” — e.e. cummings

• e.e. cummings was known for his unconventional usage of punctuation.
  • What might appear as typos as actually intentional on his part. He invented odd compound words and often avoided capitation rules. (Keep in mind he was a graduate of Harvard University, so most definitely knew English grammar rules.)

“Life’s not a paragraph, and death I think is no parenthesis.” — e.e. cummings

• During World War I, Cummings joined the French Ambulance Corps.
• He wrote some letters home that included some statements and negative opinions about the war.
• Consequently, he was arrested and imprisoned by the French military in 1917, at the La Ferté-Macé detention camp in Normandy, France, for three and a half months on suspicion of espionage.
• Thanks to the efforts of his beloved father, who caused quite a stir about his son being arrested, Estlin was released.

“Her lips drink water but her heart drinks wine.” — e.e. cummings

“Lovers alone wear sunlight.” — e.e. cummings

• e.e. cummings was greatly influenced by Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris in 1921, while in Paris.

“Awake chaos: we have napped.” — e.e. cummings

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, scared to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” — e.e. cummings

• e.e. cummings died of a stroke on September 3, 1962.
  • He is buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.
• By the time of his death, he was viewed as the most influential poet in America, after Robert Frost.

Check out quotes by Robert Frost here.

“So truly perfectly the skies. by merciful love whispered were, completes its brightness with your eyes any illimitable star”. — e.e. cummings

Read more about e.e. cummings on biography.com.

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