Life is what happens to you while you're planning on doing something else.
Interpretation
Life unfolds in unexpected ways while we are busy making plans.
This quote by John Lennon highlights the irony of human existence; while we often focus on our future plans and ambitions, life continues to happen around us, filled with unpredictable events and experiences. It serves as a reminder to be present and appreciate the moments in our lives, rather than solely fixating on what we hope to achieve in the future.
In practice
During a motivational speech about living in the moment.
When I get older losing my hair many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine. Birthday greetings, bottle of wine? If I'd been out till quarter to three would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty-four?
The writing of the Beatles, or John and Paul's contribution to the Beatles in the late sixties - had a kind of depth to it, a more mature, more intellectual approach. We were different people, we were older. We knew each other in all kinds of different ways than when we wrote together as teenagers and in our older twenties.
I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.
Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something.
I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it's happening.
I've been baking bread and looking after the baby...Everyone else who has asked me that question over the last few years says. 'But what else have you been doing?' To which I say, 'Are you kidding?' Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves [of bread,] I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?
Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.
I'm telling you, if aliens landed on earth today and took a good hard look at why babies get born, they'd conclude that most people had children by accident, or because they drink too much on a certain night, or because birth control isn't one hundred percent, or for a thousand other reasons that really aren't very flattering.
A lot of things you see as a child remain with you... you spend a lot of your life trying to recapture the experience.
To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be.
What is worthwhile in life? I think it is worth living and dreaming. If you don't you may be dead anyhow - inside.
Say what you have to say now! Don't wait until you're sending blips from the other side.
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