Quotes
128 Powerful John Lennon Quotes to Inspire Every Fan
This page will provide you with a collection of John Lennon quotes. These quotes from John Lennon will help us remember this musical genius who always inspired us to trust in our highest ideals. But, before we get into the John Lennon quotes, let us first learn a little bit about him.
John Lennon was a peace campaigner who became a symbol of love. The guy who co-founded The Beatles, the most successful and popular pop band of all time. He was noted for his abilities as a vocalist as well as his greater public appearance.
Lennon’s parents divorced when he was five, his dad compelled him to select his preferred parent, only for him to wind up staying with and being reared by his auntie Mimi Smith. His mother, on the other hand, paid him frequent visits and taught him to play bass and the piano. Some of the John Lennon quotes refer back to his childhood days as well.
Lennon hailed from a period when pop musicians acknowledged their responsibilities as cultural and social leaders, using the platforms provided by their notoriety to mold our ideals and aspirations for a better future. John Lennon’s ideas and aspirations live on through his songs and John Lennon quotes. So, without further ado, let us go through these John Lennon sayings one by one.
Table of Contents
Best John Lennon Quotes of All Time
Not many visionaries had a presence as impassioned or compelling as John Lennon’s, which remains to influence untold millions, years after he was taken from us too soon. Here are some of the best John Lennon quotes for you.
- 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
- The more I see, the less I know for sure. –John Lennon
- Everything is as important as everything else. –John Lennon
- One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside. –John Lennon
- Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. –John Lennon
- Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones. –John Lennon
- It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. –John Lennon
- How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing? –John Lennon
- Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it. –John Lennon
- You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. –John Lennon
- Sometimes 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 — there’s a chance, and it’s very strange sometimes. –John Lennon
- Time wounds all heels. –John Lennon
- I wouldn’t say I was a born writer; I’m a born thinker. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- We know how to behave! We’ve had lessons. –John Lennon
Famous John Lennon Quotes
John Lennon was the voice of our generation. His music uplifted, consoled, and encouraged us. He was a worldwide artist, his impact spanning geographical boundaries and reaching across the world. Here are some John Lennon famous quotes that you are going to fall in love with.
- As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot. –John Lennon
- Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. –John Lennon
- It’s weird not to be weird. –John Lennon
- We all shine on…like the moon and the stars and the sun…we all shine on…come on and on and on. –John Lennon
- Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. –John Lennon
- I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason! –John Lennon
- Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible. –John Lennon
- When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind. –John Lennon
- Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground. –John Lennon
- Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip. –John Lennon
- God is a concept by which we measure our pain. –John Lennon
- 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
- You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we’re beginning to look like each other. –John Lennon
- 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
- I’ve never really been wanted. –John Lennon
Powerful John Lennon Quotes
John Lennon was a powerful person. By placing himself in danger during his political involvement, he shown remarkable initiative and courage. Here are some of the most powerful John Lennon quotes for you.
- 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
- Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful. –John Lennon
- There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. –John Lennon
- There’s nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you. –John Lennon
- Women … I mean, they are the other half of the sky, and without them there is nothing. And without us there’s nothing. There’s only the two together creating children, creating society. –John Lennon
- You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
- Nothing is real. –John Lennon
- 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
- Leave a space and something will fill it. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- 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.
- What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink. –John Lennon
- Mother, you had me, but I never had you. –John Lennon
- I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you. –John Lennon
Inspirational John Lennon Quotes
John Lennon has acted as a great role model and has inspired many individuals become a better version of themselves via his music and his life. His music reaches out to us. Here are some of John Lennon inspirational quotes for you to get inspired from.
- 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
- There are no problems, only solutions. –John Lennon
- We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. –John Lennon
- You’re all geniuses, and you’re all beautiful. You don’t need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. –John Lennon
- There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known. –John Lennon
- Well, I don’t want to be king, I want to be real. –John Lennon
- A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it. –John Lennon
- I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.
- I don’t believe in yesterday, by the way. –John Lennon
- One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me. –John Lennon
- It’s just natural, it’s not a great disaster. People keep talking about it like it’s The End of the Earth. It’s only a rock group that split up, it’s nothing important. You know, you have all the old records there if you want to reminisce. –John Lennon
- I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. –John Lennon
Funny John Lennon Quotes
Many individuals found John Lennon to be an inspirational leader because of his charm, tenacity, and originality. John Lennon was charming in his business and in himself by behaving out in thoughtless ways, cracking jokes and having others laugh all around him, and taking delight in his working life. Here are some of John Lennon funny quotes for you to appreciate.
- I don’t know which will go first- rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. –John Lennon
- There’s an alternative to violence. It’s to stay in bed and grow your hair. –John Lennon
- Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. –John Lennon
- I learned lots of dirty jokes very young. There was this girl who told me them. The gang I led went in for shoplifting and pulling girls’ knickers down. Other boys’ parents hated me. –John Lennon
- Children, don’t do what I have done. I couldn’t walk so I tried to run. –John Lennon
- It’s amazing how low you go to get high. –John Lennon
- If people take any notice of what we say, we say we’ve been through the drug scene, man, and there’s nothing like being straight. –John Lennon
John Lennon Quotes about Love
In this section, we are going to take you through some of the John Lennon quotes on love. There are two primary propelling factors, according to these John Lennon love quotes: fear and love. When we are terrified, we withdraw from life. While in love, we expose ourselves to everything life can offer with enthusiasm, eagerness, and compassion. As a result, if we can’t love ourselves, we won’t be able to completely connect to our capacity for loving others.
- Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need. –John Lennon
- Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.
- Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow. –John Lennon
- Everything is clearer when you’re in love. –John Lennon
- As 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 it’s happening. –John Lennon
- We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight. –John Lennon
- 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
- When you’re in love, when somebody says something like, “How can you be with that woman?” you say, “What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love, the fulfillment of my whole life. Why are you saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at her or punish me for being in love with her? –John Lennon
- I really thought that love would save us all. –John Lennon
John Lennon Quotes about Life
Lennon wrote over 100 tracks and, with the Beatles, selling over 600 million CDs globally. His fame, as well as his ideas, carry on today. Here are some of John Lennon quotes on life that have become even more poignant since his death.
- Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears. –John Lennon
- Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. –John Lennon
- 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
- 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
- I’m not really a career person; I’m a gardener, basically. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man. –John Lennon
- 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
- My decision was already made on touring, long time ago… you gotta pull a group together, invent a group. And then you gotta whip them into life, make them a real group, and not a bunch of guys. Then you gotta go around all those snotty little dressing rooms—and all you get is money. That’s all you get from a tour: cash. –John Lennon
- It looks like I’m going to be 40 and life begins at 40—so they promise. And I believe it, too. –John Lennon
- There are places I remember all my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain. –John Lennon
John Lennon Quotes about Peace
John Lennon supported a wide range of liberal and revolutionary political issues in the 1960s and 1970s. He advocated for anti-war, Native American, and Afro – Caribbean rights, as well as a rising preference in feminism. His commitment to peace genuinely motivates many individuals all across the world. Here are some of John Lennon quotes on peace.
- If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. –John Lennon
- 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
- Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it. –John Lennon
- All we are saying is give peace a chance. –John Lennon
- Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you’ll get it as soon as you like. –John Lennon
- 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
- War is over … If you want it. –John Lennon
- 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. You may say that 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. –John Lennon
- If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence. –John Lennon
- We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once? –John Lennon
- You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. –John Lennon
- 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. People just accept it … [but] We’re all responsible for everything that goes on, you know, we’re all responsible for Biafra and Hitler and everything. So we’re just saying “SELL PEACE” — anybody interested in peace just stick it in the window. It’s simple but it lets somebody else know that you want peace too, because you feel alone if you’re the only one thinking “wouldn’t it be nice if there was peace and nobody was getting killed.” So advertise yourself that you’re for peace if you believe in it. –John Lennon
John Lennon Quotes about Happiness
Lennon genuinely advocated for a humanist attitude to daily living and global issues. Lennon could only declare himself devout in a humanitarian sense that would please only a small number of followers. Nobody but you, he added, is accountable for your pleasure. Love yourself if you want to be genuinely happy. Here are some of the John Lennon quotes on happiness.
- 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
- Happiness is a warm gun. –John Lennon
- Happiness is just how you feel when you don’t feel miserable. –John Lennon
- If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place! –John Lennon
- I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book. –John Lennon
- Imagine no possessions 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
John Lennon Quotes about Death
If you want to learn about Lennon’s idea of death go through these John Lennon quotes about death. Death, according to John Lennon, is what occurs while you’re busy in your life. The same thing occurred to him when he was slain at the pinnacle of his career.
- 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
- I could still be forgotten when I’m dead. I don’t really care what happens when I’m dead. –John Lennon
- We are all water from different rivers. That’s why it’s so easy to meet. We are all water in this vast, vast ocean. Someday we’ll evaporate together. –John Lennon
- 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
John Lennon Quotes on Dream
Dreams are important in John Lennon’s life. Many of his music came to him in a dream, if we’re being literal. He awoke and jotted down the lyrics to those tunes, along with the tune. He had no notion what they signified, but they sounded lovely to him. If we talk about dreams and aspirations, Lennon’s was of the idea that people should have high dreams and goals and rest will happen on its own. Here are some John Lennon quotes on dream you may like.
- 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
- 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. –John Lennon
- A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- Carrying the Beatles or the ‘60s dream around all your life is like carrying the Second World War and Glenn Miller around. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy Glenn Miller or the Beatles, but to live in that dream is the twilight zone. It’s not living now. It’s an illusion. –John Lennon
- Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. –John Lennon
- I was stuck in the feeling that one did not–was not justified in being alive unless one was fulfilling other people’s dreams, whether they were contractual dreams or the public’s dreams, or fulfilling my own dreams and illusions about what I thought I was supposed to be, which, in retrospect, turned out to not be what I am. –John Lennon
- Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields. Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about strawberry fields forever. –John Lennon
More John Lennon Quotes and Sayings
John Lennon’s extraordinary command of the English language extended beyond Beatles songwriting. The English vocalist has a talent for presenting even the most complex ideas in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner. Here are some more John Lennon sayings for you. You will learn a lot of valuable lessons from these quotes from John Lennon.
- When you’re drowning you don’t think, I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I’m drowning and come and rescue me. You just scream. –John Lennon
- 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. –John Lennon
- I get by with a little help from my friends. –John Lennon
- 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
- Art is only a way of expressing pain. –John Lennon
- 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
- 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
- Only by trying on other people’s clothes do we find what size we are. –John Lennon
- Before Elvis there was nothing. –John Lennon
- Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.
- My defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn’t know how to cry. Simple. –John Lennon
- Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles. –John Lennon
- For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry. –John Lennon
Final Thoughts on John Lennon Quotes
Thank you for going through the collection of John Lennon quotes we designed for you. Hopefully these quotes from John Lennon have encouraged you not just to accomplish success in this life, but also to watch out for others who really need us.
If there was ever a band that revolutionized the music scene and chronology of mainstream music like no other in history, it had to be ‘The Beatles.’ And the ‘Beatles’ would not be the same without the legendary vocalist, John Lennon.
Lennon frequently integrated his sociopolitical and humanitarian advocacy into his music. The same may be seen in his individual undertakings, which were religious wars for his social agendas. John Lennon quotes that depict his beliefs and ethos aren’t far behind. If you believe we have left out any John Lennon sayings, please let us know in the comments section below.