John Lennon Quotes – John Lennon, this name is probably familiar to all of music lovers of the 90s era.
He is best known as a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, writer, and political activist who is famous throughout the world and also as the leader of The Beatles, the legendary band of all time.
Lennon and Paul McCartney also formed the most successful songwriting partnership to date.
Even in the course of his career, he was also successful with his solo career. One of his hits that is still very popular today is Imagine, a song that later became one of the hymns for world peace.
Lots of history reminiscing, retelling and telling us all the greatness of an inspiring john legend.
Starting from music, interview memories, films, and of course included in the following inspiring quotes that will be shared below.
The following quotes can tell how great a legend john is, who inspires everyone with his musician career journey that brings us to the sweetest and best memories until now.
Here are 150 John Lennon quotes that hopefully can inspire and motivate people.
Read also: 100 Peace Quotes that Motivate For A Better Standard Of Living
Inspiring John Lennon Quotes From Legend Musician
1. âWell, pain is the pain we go through all the time. Youâre born in pain. Pain is what we are in most of the time, and I think that the bigger the pain, the more God you look for.â
2. âWhen it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the systemâs game. The establishment will irritate you , pull your beard, flick your face to make you fight. Because once theyâve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they donât know how to handle is non-violence and humor.â
3. âTime you enjoy wasting was not wasted.â
4. âYou canât just keep quiet about anything thatâs going on in the world unless youâre a monk. Sorry, monks!â
5. âOur society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think weâre being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think Iâm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. Thatâs whatâs insane about it.â
6. âTrying to please everybody is impossible. if you did that, youâd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. Youâve just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.â
7. âBeing honest may not get you a lot of friends but itâll always get you the right ones.â
8. “On the early days: âWhen we hit town, we hit it. There was no pissing about. Thereâs photographs of me crawling about in Amsterdam on my knees coming out of whore houses and things like that. The police escorted me to the places, because they never wanted a big scandal, you see. I donât really want to talk about it, because it will hurt Yoko. And itâs not fair.â
9. “On approaching the height of fame: âThat was a great period. We were like kings of the jungle then, and we were very close to the Stones. I spent a lot of time with them, and it was great. We all used to just go around London in cars and meet each other and talk about music with the Animals and Eric and all that. It was really a good time, that was the best period, fame-wise. We didnât get mobbed so much. It was like a menâs smoking club, just a very good scene.â
10. âEverybody wants the image to carry on. You want to carry on. The press want the free drinks and the free whores and the fun; everybody wants to keep on the bandwagon. We were the Caesars; who was going to knock us, when there were a million pounds to be made? All the handouts, the bribery, the police, all the fucking hype. Everybody wanted in, thatâs why some of them are still trying to cling on to this: âDonât take Rome from us, not a portable Rome where we can all have our houses and our cars and our lovers and our wives and office girls and parties and drink and drugs, donât take it from us, otherwise youâre mad, John, youâre crazy â silly John wants to take this all awayâ.â
11. “On his extreme fans: âIâm not their fucking parents. They come to the door with a fucking peace symbol and expect to just sort of march around the house or something, like an old Beatles fan. Theyâre under a delusion of awareness by having long hair, and thatâs what Iâm sick of. They frighten me.â
12. “On his New York home: âIt is a big apartment, and itâs beautiful, but it doesnât have grounds ⊠you know, itâs secure. And people canât get in and say, âIâm Jesus from Toronto, and all that. That still happens. Which was happening in the other apartment. You just couldnât go out the front door, because there would be something weird at the door.â
13. “I’ve got used to the fact just about that whatever I do is going to be compared to the other Beatles. If I took up ballet dancing, my ballet dancing would be compared with Paulâs bowling.”
14. “Why should the Beatles give more? Didn’t they give everything on God’s earth for ten years? Didn’t they give themselves?”
15. âLife is what happens to you while youâre busy making other plans.â
16. âAll 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.â
17. âEverything is as important as everything else.â
18. âI donât believe in killing whatever the reason!â
19. âWe all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once?â
20. âI donât believe in yesterday, by the way.â
21. âWhat weâve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it weâll sink.â
22. âArt is only a way of expressing pain.â
23. âTime wounds all heels.â
24. âYouâre all geniuses, and youâre all beautiful. You donât need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are.â
25. âI believe in everything until itâs disproved. So, I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if itâs in your mind. Whoâs to say that dreams and nightmares arenât as real as the here and now?â
26. âI don’t want to grow up but I’m sick of not growing up. Iâll find a different way of not growing up.â
27. âMy role in society, or any artistâs or poetâs 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.â
28. âNobody controls me. Iâm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and thatâs just barely possible.â
29. âIâm not afraid of death because I donât believe in it. Itâs just getting out of one car, and into another.â
30. âI am just some guy who did, whatever. Always see me as me. I was always me, all the way through it.â
31. âLove is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.â
32. âWhen you do something 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.â
33. âIf 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 Iâll say it.â
34. âThere are no problems, only solutions.â
35. âI put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.â
36. âI donât live it down. Iâve lived it down, played it both ways. Especially when you first get money you live it up. I had all the biggest cars in the world and I donât even like cars. I bought everything that I could buy. The only thing that I never got into is yachts. So, I went through that period. There is nothing else to do once you do it. I just live however makes me most comfortable.â
37. âMy defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didnât know how to cry. Simple.â
38. âLove, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.â
39. âAll we are saying is give peace a chance.â
40. âSometimes you wonder, I mean really wonder. I know we make our own reality, and we always have a choice, but how much is preordained? Is there always a fork in the road, and are there two preordained paths that are equally preordained? There could be hundreds of paths where one could go this way or that way, thereâs a chance, and itâs very strange sometimes.â
41. âA dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.â
42. âPeace is not something you wish for; Itâs something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.â
43. âLiving is easy with eyes closed.â
44. âThere are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life.â
45. âThereâs an alternative to violence. Itâs to stay in bed and grow your hair.â
46. âLife is very short, and thereâs no time for fussing and fighting my friends.â
47. âOur society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think weâre being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think Iâm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. Thatâs whatâs insane about it.â
48. âLove is the greatest refreshment in life.â
49. âIâm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. Iâve always been a freak. So Iâve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. Iâm one of those people.â
50. âRituals are important. Nowadays itâs hip not to be married. Iâm not interested in being hip. â
51. âWhen 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 âhappyâ. They told me I didnât understand the assignment, and I told them they didnât understand life. â
52. âThere 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. â
53. âCount your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.â
54. âIf I play rhythm guitar in back of Eltonâs record, or in back of David Bowieâs, somehow Iâm lowering myself? I think they are good artists. And they are friends of mine, and they asked me to go and play. Itâs like in the old days. Like Brian Jones is on a track of the Beatles years ago. And he played saxophone. In those days you werenât allowed to say, the record companies wouldnât allow it. So it was never mentioned. Everybody used to play on each otherâs sessions, but nobody ever said anything.
55. âI could still be forgotten when Iâm dead. I don’t really care what happens when I’m dead.â
56. âDeclare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace⊠we just need to declare it.â
57. On âGive Peace a Chanceâ: âYou were saying that in America theyâre so serious about the protest movement, but they were so flippant that they were singing a happy-go-lucky song, which happens to be one I wrote. And Iâm glad they sang it, and when I get there Iâll sing it with them⊠that was a message from me to America or to anywhere: that I use my songwriting ability to write a song that we could all sing together.â
58. âThere 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.â
59. âIf everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then thereâd be peace.â
60. âPeace is not something you wish for; Itâs something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.â
61. âWe live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.â
62. âIf everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place.â
63. âIf someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the ’60s, thatâs a problem. Peace and love are eternal.â
64. âYeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.â
65. âItâs weird not to be weird.â
66. âYou either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.â
67. âI never went to high school reunions. My thing is, out of sight, out of mind. Thatâs my attitude toward life. So I donât have any romanticism about any part of my past.â
68. âNobody controls me. Iâm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and thatâs just barely possible.â
69. âI believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. Theyâre 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.â
70. âYouâre just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. Youâve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. Itâs all down to you, mate.â
71. âI believe in everything until itâs disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if itâs in your mind. Whoâs to say that dreams and nightmares arenât as real as the here and now? â
72. âIf everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then thereâd be peace. â
73. âEverything is clearer when youâre in love.â
74. âI 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. Itâs just that the translations have gone wrong. â
75. âAs in a love affair, two creative people can destroy themselves trying to recapture that youthful spirit, at twenty-one or twenty-four, of creating without even being aware of how itâs happening.â
76. â Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.â
77. âTrying to please everybody is impossible, if you did that, youâd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. Youâve just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.â
78. âIâm not afraid of death because I donât believe in it. Itâs just getting out of one car, and into another.â
79. âTurn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.â
80. âIâm not really a career person; Iâm a gardener, basically.â
81. âItâs better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.â
82. âWhen I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobodyâs noticed. If there is such a thing as a genius. I am one, and if there isnât, I donât care.â
83. âWe live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.â
84. âGod is a concept by which we measure our pain.â
85. âIf we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.â
86. âBefore Elvis there was nothing.â
87. âIt matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love.â
88. âI donât know which will go first- rock ânâ roll or christianity.â
89. âPart of me suspects that Iâm a loser, and the other part of me thinks Iâm God Almighty.â
90. âYou have to be a bastard to make it, and thatâs a fact.â
91. âLove is the flower youâve got to let grow.â
92. âIf everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place! â
93. âIt doesnât matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether Iâm a woman or a man.â
94. âI am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.â
95. âIâve never really been wanted.â
96. âEverything will be okay in the end. If itâs not okay, itâs not the end.â
97. âEverybody loves you when youâre six foot in the ground.â
98. âThere is an alternative to war. Itâs staying in bed and growing your hair.â
99. âMy defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didnât know how to cry. Simple.â
100. âCreativity is a gift. It doesnât come through if the air is cluttered.â
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101. âBeing honest may not get you a lot of friends but itâll always get you the right ones.â
102. âIf you want peace, you wonât get it with violence.â
103. âAll we are saying is give peace a chance.â
104. âIt matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you loveâ
105. âLove, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.â
106. âImagine all the people living life in peace. You may say Iâm a dreamer, but Iâm not the only one. I hope someday youâll join us, and the world will be as one.â
107. âLove is the greatest refreshment in life.â
108. âPart of me suspects that Iâm a loser, and the other part of me thinks Iâm God Almighty.â
109. âMy role in society, or any artistâs or poetâs 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.â
110. âThatâs what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.â
111. âEverybody loves you when youâre six foot in the ground.â
112. âThere is an alternative to war. Itâs staying in bed and growing your hair.â
113. âMy defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didnât know how to cry. Simple.â
114. âWell, I donât want to be king, I want to be real.â
115. âLife is very short, and thereâs no time for fussing and fighting my friendsâ
116. ââŠChristianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I donât know what will go first, rock ânâ roll or Christianity. Weâre more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. Itâs them twisting it that ruins it for me.â
117. âWe live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.â
118. âWhen I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.â
119. âYouâre all geniuses, and youâre all beautiful. You donât need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and youâll get it as soon as you like.â
120. I believe in everything until itâs disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if itâs in your mind. Whoâs to say that dreams and nightmares arenât as real as the here and now?
121. âEverything is clearer when youâre in love.â
122. âIâm not really a career person; Iâm a gardener, basically.â
123. âSometimes you wonder, I mean really wonder. I know we make our own reality, and we always have a choice, but how much is preordained? Is there always a fork in the road, and are there two preordained paths that are equally preordained? There could be hundreds of paths where one could go this way or that way â thereâs a chance, and itâs very strange sometimes.â
124. âPeace is not something you wish for; Itâs something you make, Something you do , Something you are, And something you give awayâ
125. âWhy in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear. Why on earth are you there, when youâre everywhere-come and get your share.â
126. âCreativity is a gift. It doesnât come through if the air is cluttered.â
127. âOur society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think weâre being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think Iâm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. Thatâs whatâs insane about it.â
128. âA mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.â
129. 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. Itâs just that the translations have gone wrong.
130. âThe thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasnât the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.â
131. âLove is like a precious plant. You canât just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think itâs going to get on by itself. Youâve got to keep on watering it. Youâve got to really look after it and nurture it.â
132. âYou donât need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!â
133. âThere are no problems, only solutions.â
134. âThereâs nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I canât wake you up. You can wake you up. I canât cure you. You can cure you.â
135. âTrying to please everybody is impossible â if you did that, youâd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. Youâve just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.â
136. âIâm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. Iâve always been a freak. So Iâve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. Iâm one of those people.â
137. âEverything will be okay in the end. If itâs not okay, itâs not the end.â
138. âOne thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.â
139. âLife is what happens when you are busy making other plans.â
140. âTime you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.â
141. âMusic is everybodyâs possession. Itâs only publishers who think that people own it.â
142. âOnly by trying on other peopleâs clothes do we find what size we are.â
143. âProduce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. Itâs quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Donât 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.â
144. âDeclare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace⊠we just need to declare it.â
145. âSurrealism had a great effect on me because then I realized that the imagery in my mind wasnât insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.â
146. âWhen 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.â
147. âHappiness is just how you feel when you donât feel miserable.â
148. âIf everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!â
149. âYou know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, weâre beginning to look like each other.â
150. “I’ve always been politically minded and against the status quo.âÂ
Those are 150 John Lennon quotes that inspire to get to know the best musician of all time who has ever existed in our memories and history.