110+ John Lennon Quotes On Death, Happiness And Music

John Lennon was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to fame as a founding member of the Beatles. He wrote and composed some of the most iconic and influential songs of the 20th century, such as "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance". Lennon was assassinated in 1980, but his music and legacy have lived on and continue to inspire generations. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Lennon on life, love, death.

Top 10 John Lennon Quotes

1. Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones
2. Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.
3. Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
4. Strawberry fields forever
5. Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go
6. Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. Lennon lyric explained on Quora
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
10. Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

John Lennon Image Quotes

Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go — John Lennon

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. — John Lennon

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. — John Lennon

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

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. — John Lennon

The more I see the less I know for sure. — John Lennon

I get by with a little help from my friends. — John Lennon

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

Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. — John Lennon

Don't hate what you don't understand! — John Lennon

I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before. — John Lennon

I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love. — John Lennon

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. — John Lennon

John Lennon Short Quotes

• As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
• Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
• The more I see the less I know for sure.
• Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
• Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.
• Don't hate what you don't understand!
• The sun is up, the sky is blue It's beautiful, and so are you.
• The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
• It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man.
• Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.

John Lennon Quotes About Life

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

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

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

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

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends — John Lennon

When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. — John Lennon

I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before. — 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

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

Before Elvis there was nothing. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Love

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

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

I get by with a little help from my friends. — John Lennon

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. — John Lennon

Nobody loves you when you're down and out. — John Lennon

I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love. — John Lennon

Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need. — John Lennon

Always remember this: 'A kiss will never miss, and after many kisses a miss becomes a misses.' — John Lennon

Love is the flower you've got to let grow. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Happiness

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 — John Lennon

And So This Is Christmas; And What Have We Done? Another Year Over; A New One Just Begun; And So Happy Christmas; I Hope You Have Fun; The Near And The Dear Ones; The Old And The Young. — John Lennon

It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. — John Lennon

A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear. — John Lennon

They told me I didn't understand the assignment, I told them they didn't understand life. — John Lennon

Life is what happens to you while you're planning on doing something else. — 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

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. — John Lennon

We need to love ourselves first in All our glory and imperfections — John Lennon

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

John Lennon Quotes About Music

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

The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is. — John Lennon

I resent performing for frisking idiots who don't know anything. — 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

There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme. — John Lennon

I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever's going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan. — John Lennon

When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasses understanding - that has nothing to do with me, cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium... those moments are what I live for. — John Lennon

We were always going to dump him when we found a decent drummer. — 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

I don't bother so much about the others' songs. For instance, I don't give a damn about how 'Something' is doing in the charts - I watch 'Come Together' (the flip side) because that's my song. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Elvis

It was my Fat Elvis period. I was eating and drinking like a pig. I was depressed and I was crying out for help. It's real. And I meant it. — John Lennon

I don't believe in Elvis I don't believe in Zimmerman I don't believe in Beatles I just believe in me. — John Lennon

I don't believe in magic ... I don't believe in Jesus ... I don't believe in Buddha ... I don't believe in Elvis ... I don't believe in Beatles. — John Lennon

Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis. Without Elvis there would be no Beatles. — John Lennon

I'm an Elvis fan because it was Elvis who really got me out of Liverpool. — John Lennon

Elvis died the day he went into the army. — John Lennon

If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles. — John Lennon

Wouldn't it be interesting to take Elvis back to his Sun Records period? I don't know. But I'm content to listen to his Sun Records. I don't want to dig him up out of the grave. — John Lennon

Nothing really affected me until Elvis. — John Lennon

I've had the boyhood thing of being Elvis. Now I want to be with my best friend, and my best friend's my wife. Who could ask for anything more? — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Friends

There are places I'll remember All my life though some have changed Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life I've loved them all — John Lennon

I want to be with my best friend. My best friend, my wife. Who could ask for anything more? — John Lennon

I'm not going to sacrifice love, real love, for any *%@$n' war or any friend, or any business, because in the end you're alone at night. — John Lennon

New York is what Paris was in the twenties. . . the center of the art world. And we want to be in the center. It's the greatest place on earth. . . I've got a lot of friends here and I even brought my own cash. — John Lennon

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

John Lennon Quotes About Dreams

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

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. — John Lennon

You may say i'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one — John Lennon

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. — John Lennon

Make your own dream .I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you. — John Lennon

What I'm trying to do is to influence all the people I can influence. All those who are still under the dream and just put a big question mark in their mind. The acid dream is over, that is what I'm trying to tell them. — John Lennon

The dream is over. I gotta get down to reality. The good old days is garbage. — John Lennon

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? Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. — John Lennon

I dream in colour, and its always very surreal. My dream world is complete Hieronymus Bosch and Dali. I love it, I look forward to it every night — John Lennon

Carrying The Beatles' or the Sixties' 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

John Lennon Quotes About Paul Mccartney

To begin with, working class people reacted against our openness about sex. They are frightened of nudity, they're repressed in that way as well as others. Perhaps they thought 'Paul [McCartney] is a good lad, he doesn't make trouble'. — John Lennon

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 (McCartney)'s bowling. — John Lennon

Paul (McCartney) and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what. — John Lennon

I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono. Paul and me were the Beatles. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About War

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. — John Lennon

Imagine all the people living life in peace. — John Lennon

Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war --for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more. — John Lennon

Life is what happens when we are busy doing other things. 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

Millions of mind guerrillas, raising the spirit of peace and love, not war. — John Lennon

When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun. — 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

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

Going to America increased the build up on me, especially as the war was going on there. In a way we'd turned out to be a Trojan horse. The 'Fab Four' moved right to the top and then sang about drugs and sex and then I got into more and more heavy stuff and that's when they started dropping us. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About People

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 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

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

Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot. — John Lennon

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. — John Lennon

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

People asking questions, lost in confusion, well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions. — 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. — John Lennon

Imagine no possesions, 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

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

John Lennon Quotes About Beatles

We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once? — John Lennon

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. — John Lennon

There's nothing you can do that can't be done, Nothing you can sing that can't be sung, Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game, It's easy... All you need is love. — John Lennon

If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was 'Learn to swim. And once you've learned - swim!' — John Lennon

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

When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom "Let it be". — John Lennon

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. — John Lennon

Love is all, love is new, love is all, love is you. — John Lennon

I am not the Beatles. I'm me. Paul isn't the Beatles...The Beatles are the Beatles. Separately, they are separate. — John Lennon

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Peace

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. — John Lennon

Peace in your mind, peace on earth, peace at work, peace at home, peace in the world. — John Lennon

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

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. — John Lennon

I hope someday you will join us and the world will live as one. — 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

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

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot. I can never understand that. — John Lennon

Free all the prisoners everywhere, all they want is truth and justice, all they need is love and care. — John Lennon

I still believe in peace, love and understanding. — John Lennon

John Lennon Quotes About Rock

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'. — John Lennon

When I started, rock and roll itself was the basic revolution to people of my age and situation. We needed something loud and clear to break through all the unfeeling and repression that had been coming down on us kids. — 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

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. — John Lennon

I thought of nothing else but rock 'n' roll; apart from sex and food and money--but that's all the same thing, really. — John Lennon

There is nothing conceptually better than rock 'n' roll. No group, be it Beatles, Dylan or Stones, have ever improved on Whole Lot of Shaking for my money. Or maybe I'm like our parents: that's my period and I dig it and I'll never leave it. — John Lennon

We're more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don't know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity. — John Lennon

I like rock & roll, and I don't like much else. — John Lennon

Link Wray and Gene Vincent.... two of the greatest unknowns of rock 'n' roll. — 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

John Lennon Famous Quotes And Sayings

Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go — John Lennon

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. — John Lennon

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. — John Lennon

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. — John Lennon

The more I see the less I know for sure. — John Lennon

I get by with a little help from my friends. — John Lennon

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

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. — John Lennon

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

Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. — John Lennon

Don't hate what you don't understand! — John Lennon

I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before. — John Lennon

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

I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love. — John Lennon

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. — John Lennon

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? — John Lennon

We reckoned we could make it because there were four of us. None at us would've made it alone, because Paul wasn't quite strong enough, I didn't have enough girl-appeal, George was too quiet, and Ringo was the drummer. But we thought that everyone would be able to dig at least one of us, and that's how it turned out. — John Lennon

We're crazy about this city. First time we came here, we walked the streets all day, all over town and nobody hassled us. People smiled, friendly-like, and we knew we could live here. We'd like to keep our place in Greenwich Village and have an apartment here, God and the Immigration Service willing. Los Angeles? That's just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco. — John Lennon

Try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. While you see it your way, there's a chance that we might fall apart before too long. We can work it out. W e can work it out. — John Lennon

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. — John Lennon

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

We're crazy about this city. Los Angeles? That's just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco. — John Lennon

Everything is clearer when you're in love. — John Lennon

A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words. — John Lennon

Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. — John Lennon

A day spent wasting time, that you enjoyed, is not time wasted. — John Lennon

Love means having to say you're sorry every fifteen minutes. — John Lennon

Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity. — John Lennon

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

paranoia is just a heightened sense of awareness — John Lennon

There's nothing you can know that isn't known. — John Lennon

Love is a promise; love is a souvenir. — 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

You won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it. — John Lennon

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. — John Lennon

I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope. — John Lennon

There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen." "Life is what happens when you are making other plans. — John Lennon

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

The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being's mental and physical health, is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time because it's too hard. — John Lennon

Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. — John Lennon

You don't have to be a star to get a cheese sandwich. You just have to be first. — John Lennon

You can go to church and sing a hymn, Judge me by the colour of my skin, You can live a lie until you die, One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside. — John Lennon

I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. — John Lennon

Yoko [Ono] was showing me some of these Haiku in the original. The difference between them and Long fellow is immense. Instead of a long flowery poem the Haiku would say 'Yellow flower in white bowl on wooden table' which gives you the whole picture. — John Lennon

The reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up. — John Lennon

Life Lessons by John Lennon

1. John Lennon taught us to be compassionate and tolerant of others, no matter how different they may be. He also showed us the importance of speaking out against injustice and standing up for what we believe in. Lastly, he encouraged us to live life to the fullest and to never be afraid to express our true selves.