The voices / 84 fragments

John Lennon

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Archive entries

01Undated

I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it.It's just getting out of one car, and into another.

John Lennon / quote

02Undated

Imagine there's no countriesIt isn't hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion tooImagine all the peopleLiving life in peaceYou may say that I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one

John Lennon / quote

03Undated

I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry.

John Lennon / quote

04Undated

…Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

John Lennon / quote

05Undated

War is over ... If you want it.

John Lennon / quote

06Undated

As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.

John Lennon / quote

07Undated

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.

John Lennon / quote

08Undated

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

John Lennon / quote

09Undated

I used to think that the world was doing something to me, that the world owed me something. And that either the conservatives or the socialists or the fascists or the communists or the Christians or the Jews or the fascists were doing something to me. And when you're a teeny-booper, that's what you think. I'm 40 now, I don't think that anymore—because I found out it doesn't fucking work. I am part of them. There's no separation. Were all one. "Give peace a chance," not "Shoot people for peace." "All you need is love." I believe it. It's damn hard, but I absolutely believe it.

John Lennon / quote

10Undated

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

John Lennon / quote

11Undated

Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace... we just need to declare it.

John Lennon / quote

12Undated

One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.

John Lennon / quote

13Undated

Music is everybody's business. It's only the publishers who think people own it

John Lennon / quote

14Undated

When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

John Lennon / quote

15Undated

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

John Lennon / quote

16Undated

The more real you get the more unreal the world gets.

John Lennon / quote

17Undated

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

John Lennon / quote

18Undated

Creativity is a gift. It doesn't come through if the air is cluttered.

John Lennon / quote

19Undated

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

John Lennon / quote

20Undated

I get by with a little help from my friends.

John Lennon / quote

21Undated

Being honest may not get you a lot of friends it’ll get you the right ones

John Lennon / quote

22Undated

I was the walrus, but now I am John...and so my friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over.

John Lennon / quote

23Undated

Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

John Lennon / quote

24Undated

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 / quote