JOHN LENNON QUOTES II

British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)

John Lennon

That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.

JOHN LENNON

BBC interview with David Wigg, May 8, 1969

Tags: humor


Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful.

JOHN LENNON

The Beatles Anthology

Tags: beauty


Nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

JOHN LENNON

"All You Need Is Love"


We announce the birth of a conceptual country, NUTOPIA.
Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of NUTOPIA.
NUTOPIA has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people.
NUTOPIA has no laws other than cosmic.
All people of NUTOPIA are ambassadors of the country.
As two ambassadors of NUTOPIA, we ask for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations of our country and our people.

JOHN LENNON

Declaration of Nutopia, co-signed with Yoko Ono, April 1, 1973


It's only sane to be insane
Psychotic builds a castle
And neurotic lives in it
I don't know what to do with my sanity
When the world's at the verge of calamity

JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO

"O'Sanity"

Tags: sanity


God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

JOHN LENNON

"God"

Tags: God


I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can.

JOHN LENNON

interview, Rolling Stone, 1980


I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus."

JOHN LENNON

interview, Playboy, January 1981


I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together

JOHN LENNON

"I Am the Walrus"


It's just natural, it's not a great disaster. People keep talking about it like it's The End of The Earth. It's only a rock group that split up, it's nothing important. You know, you have all the old records there if you want to reminisce.

JOHN LENNON

interview with David Wigg, Scene and Heard, October 25, 1971

Tags: The Beatles


I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.

JOHN LENNON

interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder, December 8, 1980


Children, Don't do what I have done
I couldn't walk so I tried to run

JOHN LENNON

"Mother"


My role in society, or any artist or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

JOHN LENNON

interview, KFRC RKO Radio, December 8, 1980

Tags: artists


There's room at the top I'm telling you still
but first you must learn how to smile as you kill
if you want to be like the folks on the hill.

JOHN LENNON

"Working Class Hero"


Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come
You get a tan from standing in the English rain

JOHN LENNON

"I Am the Walrus"


Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.

JOHN LENNON

The Beatles Anthology

Tags: happiness


Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.

JOHN LENNON

"Across the Universe"

Tags: universe


The idea of beetles came into my head. I decided to spell it BEATles to make it look like beat music, just a joke.

JOHN LENNON

Life Magazine, September 13, 1968

Tags: The Beatles


People never grasp the fact that they're going to have to go through the same thing again. They get to the sort of five-year stretch or the seven-year itch or whatever these tension points are that seem to be organic, built in, like the tide coming in and going out. It's like every time the tide goes out you quit--you move your house or something.

JOHN LENNON

All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Tags: relationships


Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.... I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.

JOHN LENNON

"What Can I Tell You about Myself which You Have Not Already Found Out from Those Who Do Not Lie?", The Beatles Anthology

Tags: society