Top 71 John Lennon Quotes That Will Exist For Generations

“Let it be,” “Hey Jude” and “Imagine” are the songs by the most musically and commercially successful British band, The Beatles, that made a mark in music history. One of the members of this iconic band, John Winston Ono Lennon or just John Lennon, made a name for himself and continued writing and performing music after the group disbanded in 1970.

He settled in New York with his wife Yoko Ono and two children. Unfortunately, John Lennon’s life didn’t last long, on December 8, 1980 he was shot to death by a former fan in his apartment. Even though the music industry lost one of its gems, let’s relive his music and wisdom.

In this article, I will share some of the most unforgettable and magical words spoken by this legend about life, love, and peace that will definitely exist through generations.

71 John Lennon Quotes

1. “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.”

2. “Art is only a way of expressing pain.”

3. “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.”

4. “What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink.”

5. “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.”

6. “You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.”

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

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

9. “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.”

10. “Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”

11. “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.”

12. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”

13. “If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place! ”

14. “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.”

15. “There’s an alternative to violence. It’s to stay in bed and grow your hair.”

16. “Living is easy with eyes closed.”

17. “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. ”

18. “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.”

19. “Well, I don’t want to be king, I want to be real.”

20. “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.”

21. “A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.”

22. “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.”

23. “There are no problems, only solutions.”

24. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”

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. “If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.”

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

28. “Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.”

29. “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.”

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

31. “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.”

32. “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.”

33. “If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence.”

34. “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.”

35. “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.”

36. “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.”

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

38. “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.”

39. “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.”

40. “I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!”

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

42. “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.”

43. “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.”

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

45. “If everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!”

46. “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.”

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

48. “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.”

49. “Love is the greatest refreshment in life.”

50. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

51. “Happiness is just how you feel when you don’t feel miserable.”

52. “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. ”

53. “As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.”

54. “Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.”

55. “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.”

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

57. “One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside.”

58. “How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?”

59. “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot on the ground.”

60. “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.”

61. “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.”

62. “Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.”

63. “Nobody controls me. I’m uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible.”

64. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

65. “Everything is as important as everything else.”

66. “The more real you get, the more unreal the world gets.”

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. “It’s weird not to be weird.”

69. “A Dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality.”

70. “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

71. “Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.”

Conclusion

John Lennon’s life may be short but the magical words listed above about life and peace reflect today’s social associations, and will definitely live in our minds and hearts for generations, together with his wonderful music.

image credit: nme.com