John Lennon Quotes

1. Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

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2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. 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.

7. Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

8. 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.

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

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

11. You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

12. 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.

13. Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow.

14. Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity.

15. Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground.

16. Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.

17. Everything is clearer when you're in love.

18. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

19. All you need is love. 

20. 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.

21. All we are saying is give peace a chance.

22. Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

23. You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate.

24. 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?

25. I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

26. 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.

27. God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

28. The more I see the less I know for sure.

29. You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

30. He didn't come out of my belly, but my God, I've made his bones, because I've attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I'm so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

31. Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

32. Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem.

33. Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.

34. 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.

35. I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it "Chuck Berry".

39. The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.

40. You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

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

42. There's nothing you can know that isn't known.

43. We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow's nest of that ship.

44. Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.

45. It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man.

46. Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.

47. It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think: "Wow, how did I get here?"

48. And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he's no longer God... They'll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.

49. The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

50. These critics with the illusions they've created about artists - it's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up... I cannot be on the way up again.

51. 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.

52. Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.

53. 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.

54. A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

55. There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be...

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

57. Living is easy with eyes closed.

58. Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.

59. War is over ... If you want it.

60. God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

61. Nothing is real.

62. It's weird not to be weird.

63. Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.

64. How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?

65. I get by with a little help from my friends.

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

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

68. I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

69. Time wounds all heels.

70. Please don’t spoil my day; I’m miles away and, after all, I’m only sleeping.

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

72. Women should be obscene and not heard.

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.

74. Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends.

75. 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.

76. Avant-garde is French for bullshit.

77. When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.

78. There are no problems, only solutions.

79. We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.

80. I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.

81. Love is the greatest refreshment in life.

82. When you cross the street, take my hand.

83. There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.

84. Nobody loves you when you're down and out.

85. People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine. . . . I always wondered: "Why has nobody discovered me?" In school, didn't they see that I'm cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn't need? I got f... lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie: "You throw my f... poetry out, and you'll regret it when I'm famous, " and she threw the bastard stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a f... genius or whatever I was, when I was a child. It was obvious to me. Why didn't they put me in art school? Why didn't they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a f... cowboy like the rest of them? I was different. I was always different. Why didn't anybody notice me? A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint - express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a f... dentist or a teacher.

86. Please don't wake me, no, don't shake me, leave me where I am, I'm only sleeping...

87. Before Elvis there was nothing.

88. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.

89. Pools of sorrow. Waves of joy.

90. Paranoia is just a heightened sense of awareness.

91. 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.

92. 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.

93. You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?

94. My defenses were so great. The c... rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. Simple.

95. I've never really been wanted.

96. But I can be alone without Yoko, but I just have no wish to be. There’s no reason on earth why I should be alone without Yoko. There’s nothing more important than our relationship, nothing. And we dig being together all the time. Both of us could survive apart but what for? I’m not going to sacrifice love, real love for any whore or any friend or any business, because in the end you’re alone at night and neither of us want to be. And you can’t fill a bed with groupies. It doesn’t work. I don’t want to be a swinger. I’ve been through it all and nothing works better than to have someone you love hold you.

97. 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 f... work. I am part of them. There's no separation. We are 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.

98. Without Jimmy (James) Dean the Beatles would never have existed.

99. They want to hold onto something they never had in the first place. Anybody who claims to have some interest in me as an individual artist or even as part of the Beatles has absolutely misunderstood everything I ever said if they can't see why I'm with Yoko. And if they can't see that, they don't see anything. They're just jacking off to - it could be anybody. Mick Jagger or somebody else. Let them go jack off to Mick Jagger, okay? I don't need it.

100. 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.

101. And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

102. Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.

103. I would like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition.

104. So long ago, was it in a dream, was it just a dream?

105. I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.

106. 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!"

107. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought: "Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy". I should have said: "I am the carpenter." But that wouldn’t have been the same, would it? "I am the carpenter…"

108. If you want peace, you won't get it with violence.

109. 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.

110. Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do , Something you are, And something you give away.

111. Paul and I know each other on a lot of different levels that very few people know about.

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

113. Sometimes you wonder, I mean really wonder.

114. 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 - there's a chance, and it's very strange sometimes.

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

116. Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun, and if the sun don't come, we'll be standing in the English rain.

117. One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.

118. I'm not really a career person; I'm a gardener, basically.

119. 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.

120. Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.

121. 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.

122. 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.

123. 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.

124. Love is the Answer. What was the Question?

125. Reporter lady: What's that color?
John: Hm. I'd call this a color!

126. The world is still spinning and so are we and so are you. When the spinning stops, that'll be the time to worry. Not before.

127. Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

128. You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we're beginning to look like each other. (about The Beatles)

129. I think the music reflects the state that the society is in. It doesn't suggest the state. I think the poets and musicians and artists are of the age - not only do they lead the age on, but they also reflect that age. (…) Like The Beatles. We came out of Liverpool and we reflected our background and we reflected our thoughts in what we sang, and that's all people are doing.

130. You are all geniuses, and you are all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, live peace, and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like.

131. The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin!

132. Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep.

133. As a kid I had a dream, I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike. Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night. Not me. I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed.

134. Always remember this: "A kiss will never miss, and after many kisses a miss becomes a misses".

135. Reporter: How did you find America? Lennon: We turned left at Greenland.

136. I remember a time when everybody I loved hated me because I hated them.

137. A woman can be anything the man who loves her would have her be.

138. I really thought that love would save us all.

139. 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.

140. I've sold my soul to the devil.

141. You have to be! (Laughs) You might get shot! (responding to a reporter question during The Beatles Australian tour of if they were aware of everything going on around them.)

142. I don't have any romanticism about any part of my past. I think of it only inasmuch as it gave me pleasure or helped me grow psychologically. That is the only thing that interests me about yesterday. I don't believe in yesterday, by the way. You know I don't believe in yesterday. I am only interested in what I am doing now.

143. She forced me to become avant-garde and take my clothes off, when all I wanted was to be Tom Jones.

144. I think a label like "avant-garde" defeats itself. You learn to have avant-garde exhibitions. The very fact that avant-garde can have an exhibition defeats the purpose of avant-garde, because it's already formalised and ritualised.

145. 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.

146. I don't need to go to church. I respect churches because of the sacredness that's been put on them over the years by people who do believe. But 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, and as Donovan once said: "I go to my own church in my own temple once a day." And I think people who need a church should go. And the others who know the church is in your own head should visit that temple because that's where the source is. We're all God. Christ said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." And the Indians say that and the Zen people say that. 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. We all have everything within us and the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh and within us, and if you look hard enough you'll see it.

147. I've never met anybody who's had a flashback in my life and I took millions of trips in the Sixties, and I've never met anybody who had any problem. I've had bad trips, but I've had bad trips in real life. I've had a bad trip on a joint. I can get paranoid just sitting in a restaurant; I don't have to take anything.

148. We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD, by the way. Everything is the opposite of what it is, isn't it? They brought out LSD to control people, and what they did was give us freedom. Sometimes it works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. But it sure as hell performs them. If you look a the government report book on acid, the only ones who jumped out of windows because of it were the ones in the Army. I never knew anybody who jumped out of a window or killed themselves because of it.

149. I don't mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore. You've got to have people putting you down. It doesn't give any edge to it if everybody just falls flat on their face saying: "You're great." We enjoy some of the criticisms as well, they're quite funny; some of the clever criticisms, not the ones that don't know anything, but some of the clever ones are quite fun.

150. I wouldn't say I was a born writer; I'm a born thinker.

151. It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison - it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.

152. It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan - we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert - but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or worse than "Imagine." It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge - I do.

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