100+ Inspirational John Lennon Quotes [2024] Famous Singer & Songwriter

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Updated: January 20th, 2022

John Lennon was a really popular English Singer, Songwriter, Musician, and Social Activist.

John Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the 5th greatest singer and 38th greatest artist of all time.

He became famous as the founder, co-lead vocalist, co-songwriter, and guitarist of the famous rock band Beatles. Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in music history.

We've put together an incredible collection of John Lennon quotes to read.

Here they are:

100+ Inspirational John Lennon Quotes [2024] Famous Singer & Songwriter

List of Inspiring John Lennon Quotes

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. >> John Lennon

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. >> John Lennon

All music is rehashed. 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

Everything is as important as everything else. >> John Lennon

I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason! >> John Lennon

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

I don’t believe in yesterday, by the way. >> John Lennon

I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, 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

Living is easy with eyes closed. >> John Lennon

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. >> John Lennon

God is a concept by which we measure our pain. >> John Lennon

If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. >> John Lennon

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. >> John Lennon

Before Elvis there was nothing. >> John Lennon

It matters not who you love, where you live, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love. >> John Lennon

There’s an alternative to violence. It’s to stay in bed and grow your hair. >> John Lennon

I don’t know which will go first- rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. >> John Lennon

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

Everything is clearer when you’re in love. >> John Lennon

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

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

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

It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. >> 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

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

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. >> John Lennon

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow. >> 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

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

Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip. >> John Lennon

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

As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot. >> John Lennon

Love is the greatest refreshment in life. >> John Lennon

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

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

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

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

Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. >> John Lennon

I’m not really a career person; I’m a gardener, basically. >> John Lennon

Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need. >> 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

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. >> John Lennon

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own 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. >> John Lennon

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known. >> 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

One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside. >> 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

Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted. >> 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

War is over … If you want it. >> John Lennon

How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing? >> John Lennon

Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. >> John Lennon

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. >> John Lennon

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. >> John Lennon

Everybody loves you when you’re six feet on the ground. >> John Lennon

There is an alternative to war. It’s staying in bed and growing your hair. >> John Lennon

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

Creativity is a gift. It doesn’t come through if the air is cluttered. >> John Lennon

Well, I don’t want to be king, I want to be real. >> John Lennon

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

You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we’re beginning to look like each other. >> 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

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

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. >> John Lennon

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

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

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

Happiness is just how you feel when you don’t feel miserable. >> 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 yourself up. I can’t cure you. You can cure yourself. >> John Lennon

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

If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence. >> John Lennon

Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun. >> John Lennon

It’s weird not to be weird. >> John Lennon

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

Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible. >> John Lennon

What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink. >> John Lennon

Art is only a way of expressing pain. >> John Lennon

Time wounds all heels. >> 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

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what color my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man. >> John Lennon

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

I’ve never really been wanted. >> 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

The more real you get, the more unreal the world gets. >> 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

There are no problems, only solutions. >> 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

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

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. >> John Lennon

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are! >> John Lennon

All we are saying is give peace a chance. >> John Lennon

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. >> 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

A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it. >> John Lennon

Only by trying on other people’s clothes do we find what size we are. >> 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

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. >> John Lennon

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