John Lennon (1940–1980) was a British musician, singer-songwriter, and peace activist best known as a founding member of the Beatles. Alongside Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, Lennon played a central role in revolutionizing popular music and culture in the 1960s. As the band’s primary songwriter, his introspective and socially conscious lyrics became synonymous with the era. After the Beatles disbanded, Lennon pursued a successful solo career, releasing iconic albums like “Imagine.” Beyond music, he was a vocal advocate for peace and social justice, using his platform to promote activism. Tragically, Lennon was fatally shot outside his New York City apartment on December 8, 1980, at the age of 40. Despite his premature death, his music and legacy continue to inspire generations worldwide, solidifying his status as an enduring cultural icon.

John Lennon Quotes

1. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
— John Lennon

2. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
— John Lennon

3. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”
— John Lennon

4. “A mistake is only an error. It becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.”
— John Lennon

5. “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.”
— John Lennon

6. “There are no problems, only solutions.”
— John Lennon

7. “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 live as one.”
— John Lennon

8. “The more real you get the more unreal the world gets. ”
— John Lennon

9. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
— John Lennon

10. “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.”
— John Lennon

11. “As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.”
— John Lennon

12. “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
— John Lennon

13. “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
— John Lennon

14. “It’s weird not to be weird.”
— John Lennon

15. “Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
— John Lennon

16. “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.”
— John Lennon

17. “Creativity is a gift. It doesn’t come through if the air is cluttered.”
— John Lennon

18. “Love is the greatest refreshment in life.”
— John Lennon

19. “Love is like a flower – you’ve got to let it grow.”
— John Lennon

20. “Time wounds all heels.”
— John Lennon

21. “Don’t hate what you don’t understand!”
— John Lennon

22. “Imagine all the people living life in peace…”
— John Lennon

23. “All you need is love.”
— John Lennon

24. “Living is easy with eyes closed.”
— John Lennon

25. “I get by with a little help from my friends.”
— John Lennon

26. “Nothing is real.”
— John Lennon

27. “You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!”
— John Lennon

28. “Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends.”
— John Lennon

29. “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.”
— John Lennon

30. “We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
— John Lennon

31. “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?”
— John Lennon

32. “Music is everybody’s business. It’s only the publishers who think people own it.”
— John Lennon

33. “I still believe in peace, love, and understanding.”
— John Lennon

34. “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
— John Lennon

35. “The more I see, the less I know for sure.”
— John Lennon

36. “There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”
— John Lennon

37. “Nobody loves you when you’re down and out.”
— John Lennon

38. “How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?”
— John Lennon

39. “Everybody seems to think I’m lazy I don’t mind, I think they’re crazy. Running everywhere at such a speed Till they find there’s no need.”
— John Lennon

40. “Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.”
— John Lennon

41. “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.”
— John Lennon

42. “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.”
— John Lennon

43. “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.”
— John Lennon

44. “Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”
— John Lennon

45. “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today…”
— John Lennon

46. “One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside.”
— John Lennon

47. “Make love, not war.”
— John Lennon

48. “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.”
— John Lennon

49. “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 on watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”
— John Lennon

50. “When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.”
— John Lennon

51. “Remember to let her into your heart.”
— John Lennon

52. “The people have the power. All we have to do is awaken the power in the people.”
— John Lennon

53. “Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out It doesn’t matter much to me.”
— John Lennon

54. “Art is only a way of expressing pain.”
— John Lennon

55. “When you cross the street, take my hand.”
— John Lennon

56. “Tell the truth and make it rhyme.”
— John Lennon

57. “Money can’t buy me love.”
— John Lennon

58. “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
— John Lennon

59. “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.”
— John Lennon

60. “If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.”
— John Lennon

61. “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

62. “I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.”
— John Lennon

63. “I was feeling insecure you might not love me anymore.”
— John Lennon

64. “Please don’t spoil my day; I’m miles away and, after all, I’m only sleeping.”
— John Lennon

65. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
— John Lennon

66. “I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.”
— John Lennon

67. “Peace in your mind, peace on earth, peace at work, peace at home, peace in the world.”
— John Lennon

68. “Instant Karma is going to get you.”
— John Lennon

69. “You can only breathe out if you breathe in.”
— John Lennon

70. “Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.”
— John Lennon

71. “Whatever gets you through the night.”
— John Lennon

72. “Women should be obscene and not heard.”
— John Lennon

73. “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.”
— John Lennon

74. “A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words.”
— John Lennon

75. “A working class hero is something to be.”
— John Lennon

76. “I don’t expect you to understand after you’ve caused so much pain, but then again-you’re not to blame; you’re just human-a victim of the insane.”
— John Lennon

77. “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.”
— John Lennon

78. “Before Elvis there was nothing.”
— John Lennon

79. “There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.”
— John Lennon

80. “You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.”
— John Lennon

81. “Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis. Without Elvis there would be no Beatles.”
— John Lennon

82. “The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”
— John Lennon

83. “I believe that as soon as people want peace in the world they can have it. The trouble is they are not aware they can get it.”
— John Lennon

84. “We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now.”
— John Lennon

85. “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

86. “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.”
— John Lennon

87. “The sun is up, the sky is blue It’s beautiful, and so are you.”
— John Lennon

88. “For those of you in the cheap seats I’d like ya to clap your hands to this one; the rest of you can just rattle your jewelry!”
— John Lennon

89. “Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.”
— John Lennon

90. “I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono. Paul and me were the Beatles.”
— John Lennon

91. “In ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ I was visualizing Alice in Wonderland, an image of this female who would come and save me – a girl with kaleidoscope eyes who would be the real love of my life. Lucy turned out to be Yoko.”
— John Lennon

92. “Nothing happened in the sixties except that we all dressed up.”
— John Lennon

93. “Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.”
— John Lennon

94. “The only reason I went for that goal is that I wanted to say: ‘Now, mummy-daddy, will you love me?’”
— John Lennon

102. “There is nothing conceptually better than rock ‘n’ roll. No group, be it Beatles, Dylan or Stones, have ever improved on Whole Lot of Shaking for my money. Or maybe I’m like our parents: that’s my period and I dig it and I’ll never leave it.”
— John Lennon

103. “Like Paul Kraston said, all I ask in life is a water bed, a TV and a typewriter. Well, I’ll just have an ordinary bed, a TV and a guitar.”
— John Lennon

104. “Don’t believe that jazz about there’s nothing you can do, “turn on and drop out, man” – because you’ve got to turn on and drop in, or they’re going to drop all over you.”
— John Lennon

105. “At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain.”
— John Lennon

106. “We’re crazy about this city. Los Angeles? That’s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco.”
— John Lennon

107. “Love is real, real is love.”
— John Lennon

108. “Life happens while we are making other plans.”
— John Lennon

109. “The first drugs I ever took, I was still at art school, with the group – we all took it together – was Benzedrine from the inside of an inhaler.”
— John Lennon

110. “Mostly folk music is people with fruity voices trying to keep alive something old and dead. It’s all a bit boring, like ballet: a minority thing kept going by a minority group.”
— John Lennon

111. “I recently got into Haiku in Japan and I just think it’s fantastic. Obviously, when you get rid of a whole section of illusion in your mind you’re left with great precision.”
— John Lennon

112. “I’m not saying we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing, or whatever it is. I just said what I said, and it was wrong, or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this.”
— John Lennon

113. “Happiness is a good vibe for peace.”
— John Lennon

114. “Come together, right now.”
— John Lennon

115. “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.”
— John Lennon

116. “Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and even that’s barely possible.”
— John Lennon

117. “The establishment irritates you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight because once they’ve got you violent they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humour.”
— John Lennon

118. “Imagine.”
— John Lennon

119. “It seems that all revolutions end up with a personality cult – even the Chinese seem to need a father-figure.”
— John Lennon

120. “And So This Is Christmas; And What Have We Done? Another Year Over; A New One Just Begun; And So Happy Christmas; I Hope You Have Fun; The Near And The Dear Ones; The Old And The Young.”
— John Lennon

121. “All I want is the truth, just give me some truth.”
— John Lennon

122. “If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence.”
— John Lennon

123. “Elvis died the day he went into the army.”
— John Lennon

124. “Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it. If you were going to give Rock ‘n’ Roll another name you might as well call it Chuck Berry. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – Rock and Roll or Christianity.”
— John Lennon

125. “What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink.”
— John Lennon

126. “One day at a time is all we do. One day at a time is good for you.”
— John Lennon

127. “Life is what happens to you while you’re planning on doing something else.”
— John Lennon

128. “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.”
— John Lennon

129. “The dream is over. I gotta get down to reality. The good old days is garbage.”
— John Lennon

130. “You say you want a revolution? Well, you know. We all want to change the world.”
— John Lennon

131. “Love is the Answer. What was the Question?”
— John Lennon

132. “When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy.”
— John Lennon

133. “Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world.”
— John Lennon

134. “Happiness is a warm gun.”
— John Lennon

135. “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.”
— John Lennon

136. “A day spent wasting time, that you enjoyed, is not time wasted…”
— John Lennon

137. “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
— John Lennon

138. “I cannot be what I am not.”
— John Lennon

139. “Work is life, you know, and without it, there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.”
— John Lennon

140. “Don’t need a gun to blow your mind.”
— John Lennon

141. “Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These.”
— John Lennon

142. “I want you to make love, not war, I know you’ve heard it before.”
— John Lennon

143. “The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees; I want money.”
— John Lennon

144. “We’re trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it’s the only way to get people aware that peace is possible, and it isn’t just inevitable to have violence. Not just war – all forms of violence.”
— John Lennon

145. “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.”
— John Lennon

146. “Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can.”
— John Lennon

147. “The magic of the music seems to light the way.”
— John Lennon

148. “The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn’t represent the people. It controls them.”
— John Lennon

149. “You won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.”
— John Lennon

150. “I am the eggman They are the eggmen! I am the walrus!”
— John Lennon

151. “Music touching my soul, the spirit dance was unfolding.”
— John Lennon

152. “No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go.”
— John Lennon

153. “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

154. “Ringo isn’t the best drummer in the world. He isn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles.”
— John Lennon

155. “Mother, you had me, but I never had you.”
— John Lennon

156. “Pools of sorrow. Waves of joy.”
— John Lennon

157. “I am going into an unknown future, but I’m still all here, and still while there’s life, there’s hope.”
— John Lennon

158. “I’m cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I’m not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That’s why I really don’t want to be labeled a cynic.”
— John Lennon

159. “They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, I told them they didn’t understand life.”
— John Lennon

160. “I would like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”
— John Lennon

161. “Life is what happens when we are busy doing other things. Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.”
— John Lennon

162. “We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once?”
— John Lennon

163. “Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
— John Lennon

164. “There’s room at the top they are telling you still, but first you must learn how to smile as you kill.”
— John Lennon

165. “You’re born in pain and pain is what we’re in most of the time. And I think that the bigger the pain, the more gods we need.”
— John Lennon

166. “Am I crazy or am I a genius? I don’t think I’m either.”
— John Lennon

167. “Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you.”
— John Lennon

168. “Instant Karma’s gonna get you, gonna knock you right on the head.”
— John Lennon

169. “When they’ve tortured and scared you for 20 odd years, then they expect you to pick a career.”
— John Lennon

170. “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

171. “It’s amazing how low you go to get high.”
— John Lennon

172. “Don’t underestimate the importance of happiness. As long as you’re happy, who cares what you do?”
— John Lennon

173. “It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.”
— John Lennon

174. “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.”
— John Lennon

175. “When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun.”
— John Lennon

176. “If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles.”
— John Lennon

177. “Control yourself. You’ll spurt.”
— John Lennon

178. “They hit you at school, they hate you if your clever, and they despise a fool.”
— John Lennon

179. “I don’t stand back and judge – I do.”
— John Lennon

180. “If I’d lived in Roman times, I’d have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself.”
— John Lennon

181. “We are all Christ and Hitler. Yoko and I want Christ to win.”
— John Lennon

182. “Always remember this: ‘A kiss will never miss, and after many kisses a miss becomes a misses.’”
— John Lennon

183. “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.”
— John Lennon

184. “I’ll probably be popped off by some loony.”
— John Lennon

185. “Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go.”
— John Lennon

186. “I’ll give you everything I’ve got for a little peace of mind.”
— John Lennon

187. “Surrealism to me is reality. Psychedelic vision is reality to me and always was.”
— John Lennon

188. “One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.”
— John Lennon

189. “It’s like being possessed: like a psychic or a medium. I felt like a hollow temple filled with many spirits, each one passing through me, each inhabiting me for a little time and then leaving to be replaced by another.”
— John Lennon

190. “People asking questions, lost in confusion, well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions.”
— John Lennon

191. “I’ll be a good boy, please make me well. I promise you anything, get me out of this hell. Cold turkey has got me on the run.”
— John Lennon

192. “No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me With just a pocketful of soap.”
— John Lennon

193. “I don’t know how much money I’ve got. I did ask the accountant how much it came to. I wrote it down on a bit of paper. But I’ve lost the bit of paper.”
— John Lennon

194. “We’re mostly macrobiotic, but sometimes I take the family out for a pizza.”
— John Lennon

195. “Millions of mind guerrillas, raising the spirit of peace and love, not war.”
— John Lennon

196. “We’re all God. I’m not a god or the God, but we’re all God and we’re all potentially divine-and potentially evil.”
— John Lennon

197. “Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear. Why on earth are you there, when you’re everywhere-come and get your share.”
— John Lennon

198. “Happiness Is A Warm Gun not about heroin. A gun magazine was sitting there with a smoking gun on the cover and an article that I never read inside called ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun.’ I took it right from there. I took it as the terrible idea of just having shot some animal.”
— John Lennon

199. “I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.”
— John Lennon

200. “Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.”
— John Lennon