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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. “Well, pain is the pain we go through all the time. You’re 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.”
2. “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you , pull your beard, flick your face to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”
3. ”Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.”
4. “You can’t just keep quiet about anything that’s going on in the world unless you’re a monk. Sorry, monks!”
5. “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.”
6. “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.”
7. “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.”
8. “On the early days: “When we hit town, we hit it. There was no pissing about. There’s 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 don’t really want to talk about it, because it will hurt Yoko. And it’s not fair.”
9. “On approaching the height of fame: “That 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 didn’t get mobbed so much. It was like a men’s smoking club, just a very good scene.”
10. “Everybody 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, that’s why some of them are still trying to cling on to this: ‘Don’t 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, don’t take it from us, otherwise you’re mad, John, you’re crazy – silly John wants to take this all away’.”
11. “On his extreme fans: “I’m 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. They’re under a delusion of awareness by having long hair, and that’s what I’m sick of. They frighten me.”
12. “On his New York home: “It is a big apartment, and it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t have grounds … you know, it’s secure. And people can’t get in and say, ‘I’m Jesus from Toronto, and all that. That still happens. Which was happening in the other apartment. You just couldn’t go out the front door, because there would be something weird at the door.”
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 Paul’s 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. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
16. “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.”
17. “Everything is as important as everything else.”
18. “I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!”
19. “We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once?”
20. “I don’t believe in yesterday, by the way.”
21. “What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink.”
22. “Art is only a way of expressing pain.”
23. “Time wounds all heels.”
24. “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.”
25. “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?”
26. “I don’t want to grow up but I’m sick of not growing up. I’ll find a different way of not growing up.”
27. “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.”
28. “Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible.”
29. “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.”
30. “I am just some guy who did, whatever. Always see me as me. I was always me, all the way through it.”
31. “Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”
32. “When 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.”
33. “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.”
34. “There are no problems, only solutions.”
35. “I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.”
36. “I don’t live it down. I’ve 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 don’t 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.”
37. “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.”
38. “Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.”
39. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
40. “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.”
41. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
42. “Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.”
43. “Living is easy with eyes closed.”
44. “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life.”
45. “There’s an alternative to violence. It’s to stay in bed and grow your hair.”
46. “Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends.”
47. “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.”
48. “Love is the greatest refreshment in life.”
49. “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.”
50. ”Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip. “
51. “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. “
52. “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. “
53. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
54. “If I play rhythm guitar in back of Elton’s record, or in back of David Bowie’s, somehow I’m lowering myself? I think they are good artists. And they are friends of mine, and they asked me to go and play. It’s 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 weren’t allowed to say, the record companies wouldn’t allow it. So it was never mentioned. Everybody used to play on each other’s sessions, but nobody ever said anything.
55. “I could still be forgotten when I’m dead. I don’t really care what happens when I’m dead.”
56. “Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.”
57. On “Give Peace a Chance”: “You were saying that in America they’re 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 I’m glad they sang it, and when I get there I’ll 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.”
58. “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.”
59. “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
60. “Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.”
61. “We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
62. “If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place.”
63. “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.”
64. “Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.”
65. “It’s weird not to be weird.”
66. “You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.”
67. “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.”
68. “Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible.”
69. “I believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. They’re all saying the same thing and I believe it. I believe what Jesus actually said, the basic things he laid down about love and goodness and not what people say he said.”
70. “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.”
71. “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? “
72. “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. “
73. “Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
74. “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. “
75. “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.”
76. ” Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
77. “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.”
78. “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.”
79. “Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.”
80. “I’m not really a career person; I’m a gardener, basically.”
81. “It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.”
82. “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.”
83. “We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
84. “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
85. “If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.”
86. “Before Elvis there was nothing.”
87. “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.”
88. “I don’t know which will go first- rock ‘n’ roll or christianity.”
89. “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
90. “You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact.”
91. “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.”
92. “If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place! “
93. “It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.”
94. “I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.”
95. “I’ve never really been wanted.”
96. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
97. “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
98. “There is an alternative to war. It’s staying in bed and growing your hair.”
99. “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.”
100. “Creativity is a gift. It doesn’t come through if the air is cluttered.”
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101. “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.”
102. “If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence.”
103. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
104. “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”
105. “Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.”
106. “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.”
107. “Love is the greatest refreshment in life.”
108. “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
109. “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.”
110. “That’s 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.”
111. “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
112. “There is an alternative to war. It’s staying in bed and growing your hair.”
113. “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.”
114. “Well, I don’t want to be king, I want to be real.”
115. “Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends”
116. “…Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I don’t know what will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. We’re more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
117. “We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
118. “When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.”
119. “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. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you’ll get it as soon as you like.”
120. 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?
121. “Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
122. “I’m not really a career person; I’m a gardener, basically.”
123. “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.”
124. “Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, Something you do , Something you are, And something you give away”
125. “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.”
126. “Creativity is a gift. It doesn’t come through if the air is cluttered.”
127. “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.”
128. “A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.”
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. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.
130. “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.”
131. “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.”
132. “You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!”
133. “There are no problems, only solutions.”
134. “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.”
135. “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.”
136. “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.”
137. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
138. “One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.”
139. “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”
140. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”
141. “Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.”
142. “Only by trying on other people’s clothes do we find what size we are.”
143. “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.”
144. “Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.”
145. “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.”
146. “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.”
147. “Happiness is just how you feel when you don’t feel miserable.”
148. “If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!”
149. “You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we’re beginning to look like each other.”
150. “I’ve always been politically minded and against the status quo.”
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.