100+ Quotes by John Lennon
John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles and an influential musician, left an indelible mark on the landscape of popular music. His songwriting prowess, both within The Beatles and in his solo career, combined introspection, social commentary, and catchy melodies. Songs like "Imagine" and "Let It Be" remain timeless anthems that have transcended generations. Beyond his musical contributions, Lennon was an outspoken advocate for peace and social change, using his platform to highlight issues such as war and inequality. His tragic assassination in 1980 cut short a life that had already shaped the course of music and culture, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire artists and activists alike.
John Lennon Quotes
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones (Meaning)
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. (Meaning)
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. (Meaning)
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. (Meaning)
A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it (Meaning)
Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. (Meaning)
The sun is up, the sky is blue It's beautiful, and so are you. (Meaning)
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. (Meaning)
Don't hate what you don't understand! (Meaning)
Happiness is inside you, not with another person (Meaning)
As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot. (Meaning)
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. (Meaning)
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. (Meaning)
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace. (Meaning)
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. (Meaning)
One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside. (Meaning)
Life's what happens when you're making other plans. (Meaning)
Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends (Meaning)
A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words. (Meaning)
You may say i'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one (Meaning)
I believe time wounds all heels. (Meaning)
Instant Karma is going to get you. (Meaning)
The more I see the less I know for sure. (Meaning)
Love is the flower you've got to let grow. (Meaning)
Everything is clearer when you're in love. (Meaning)
If you want peace, you won't get it with violence. (Meaning)
How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing? (Meaning)
Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun. (Meaning)
Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. (Meaning)
Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go (Meaning)
If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then it wasn't wasted time. (Meaning)
Tell the truth and make it rhyme (Meaning)
Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you. (Meaning)
It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. (Meaning)
You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. (Meaning)
Imagine all the people living life in peace. (Meaning)
There's nothing you can do that can't be done. (Meaning)
Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can. (Meaning)
I believe in everything until it's disproved. (Meaning)
God is a concept by which we measure our pain. (Meaning)
All you need is love. (Meaning)
Get back to where you once belonged. (Meaning)
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. (Meaning)
I was feeling insecure you might not love me anymore (Meaning)
Remember to let her into your heart. (Meaning)
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones
Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.
I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.
You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love
Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.
A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.
I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.
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.
Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.
Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends
Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.
Happiness is inside you, not with another person
You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
The sun is up, the sky is blue It's beautiful, and so are you.
Peace in your mind, peace on earth, peace at work, peace at home, peace in the world.
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.
I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it. It's just getting out of one car, and into another
Don't hate what you don't understand!
When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream.
As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
All you need is love.
If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.
Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.
The more I see the less I know for sure.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
My role in society, or any artist's 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.
"Love is the answer, and you know that for sure;
Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow."
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.
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.
Always remember this: 'A kiss will never miss, and after many kisses a miss becomes a misses.'
Before Elvis there was nothing.
Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.
The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn't represent the people. It controls them.
You may say i'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
A day spent wasting time, that you enjoyed, is not time wasted.
A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words.
We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create
Trying to please everybody is impossible - if you did that, you'd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You've just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.
Love means having to say you're sorry every fifteen minutes.
We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once?
Everything is clearer when you're in love.
A dream you dream alone is only a dream.
Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.
People asking questions, lost in confusion, well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions.
You won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.
The people have the power. All we have to do is awaken the power in the people.
paranoia is just a heightened sense of awareness
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
The artist's role isn't to tell people how to feel, but reflect.
The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.
Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace.
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.
Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity.
Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful.
Creativity is a gift. It doesn't come through if the air is cluttered.
Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem.
You are not your emotions, you have emotions, and you can master them.
I cannot be what I am not.
It's fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that-it's all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and it's plain sailing. Everything is unknown-then you're ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?
I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!
There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen." "Life is what happens when you are making other plans.
I don't believe in yesterday, by the way.
I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope.
I remember a time when everybody I loved hated me because I hated them.
Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.
Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis. Without Elvis there would be no Beatles.
It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.
Love is the Answer. What was the Question?
Love is the flower you've got to let grow.
I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything.
You can go to church and sing a hymn, Judge me by the colour of my skin, You can live a lie until you die, One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
Tell the truth and make it rhyme
When I was about twelve I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. If there is such a thing as a genius, I am one, and if there isn't I don't care.
If you want peace, you won't get it with violence.
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?
When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasses understanding - that has nothing to do with me, cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium... those moments are what I live for.
I never went to high school reunions. My thing is, out of sight, out of mind. That's my attitude toward life. So I don't have any romanticism about any part of my past.
Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and even that's barely possible.
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.
One day at a time is all we do. One day at a time is good for you
One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot. I can never understand that.
I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.
Violence begets violence, you know. And you can't kill off all the violent people or all the murderers. We'd have to kill off the government.
We need to love ourselves first in All our glory and imperfections
There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things other people didn't see.
There are no problems, only solutions.
Everything they told me as a kid has already been disproved by the same type of “experts” who made them up in the first place.
if everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!
Meanings of all songs come after they are recorded. Someone else has to interpret them
I believe time wounds all heels.
I still believe in peace, love and understanding.
The women are very important too, we can't have a revolution that doesn't involve and liberate women. It's so subtle the way you're taught male superiority.
There are places I'll remember All my life though some have changed Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life I've loved them all
Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.
When his rolls royce was mobbed by fans the chauffeur said: ''do you want me to get them off the car?'' and Lennon replied: ''No - they paid for it, they can wreck it
Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you.
Don't underestimate the importance of happiness. As long as you're happy, who cares what you do?
Sarcasim is the lowest form of humor.
What I'm trying to do is to influence all the people I can influence. All those who are still under the dream and just put a big question mark in their mind. The acid dream is over, that is what I'm trying to tell them.
Songwriting is like ... being possessed. You try to go to sleep but the song won't let you.
I wouldn't say I was a born writer; I'm a born thinker.
Love is real, real is love, Love is feeling, feeling love, Love is wanting to be loved. Love is touch, touch is love, Love is reaching, reaching love, Love is asking to be loved. Love is you, You and me, Love is knowing, We can be. Love is free, free is love, Love is living, living love, Love is needing to be loved.
My teacher asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I said happy. She told me I don't understand the assignment, I told her she doesn't understand life.
Instant Karma is going to get you.
Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can.
As I play the game of life, I try to make it better each and every day. And when I struggle in the night, The magic of the music seems to light the way.
What I'd have liked would have been the money and the hit records without the fame.
Peace and love are eternal.
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love.
Millions of mind guerrillas, raising the spirit of peace and love, not war.
What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
The greatest artists always come round to simplicity.
It's amazing how low you go to get high.
All music is rehash. There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme. Try to tell the kids in the Seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just The Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees.
How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?
I'm not really a career person; I'm a gardener, basically.
Only by trying on other people's clothes do we find what size we are.
I think a lot of bad things have happened in the name of the church and in the name of Christ. Therefore I shy away from church...
Your inside is out and your outside is in.
Love is needing to be loved.
If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then it wasn't wasted time.
I believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. They're all saying the same thing - and I believe it. I believe what Jesus actually said - the basic things he laid down about love and goodness - and not what people say he said.
Without a job all there is to life is boredom and insecurity.
"God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
I'll say it again.
God is a concept by which we measure our pain."
Happiness is a good vibe for peace.
I believe that God is like a powerhouse, like where you keep electricity, like a power station. And that he's a supreme power, and that he's neither good not bad, left, right, black or white. He just is. And we tap that source of power and make of it what we will. Just as electricity can kill people in a chair, or you can light a room with it. I think God is.
Leave a space and something will fill it.
We never write anything with themes. We just write the same rubbish all the time.
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
I can't play guitar, but I can sure make it howl.
― John Lennon Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
