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John Lennon Quotes
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228 Quotes to Inspire and Uplift with Wisdom and Wit

Discover the wisdom and wit of John Lennon through his most famous quotes. From inspiring messages of peace and unity to thought-provoking reflections on life and happiness, Lennon's words continue to resonate today. Dive into his insightful quotes and let them inspire and uplift you.

John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and peace activist, best known as the founder of the Beatles. Born in Liverpool, he became involved in the skiffle craze before forming The Quarrymen, which eventually transformed into the iconic band in 1960. Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney is considered the most successful in history. Throughout his career, Lennon embraced a wide range of musical influences and incorporated experimental elements into his compositions. He also ventured into other media, participating in films and releasing collections of writings and drawings.

In addition to his work with the Beatles, Lennon formed the Plastic Ono Band with Yoko Ono and released solo albums that produced international hit singles such as "Give Peace a Chance", "Imagine", and "Happy Xmas". He faced deportation attempts by the Nixon administration due to his criticism of the Vietnam War. After a hiatus, Lennon returned to music in 1980 with his album Double Fantasy but tragically was murdered by a fan shortly after its release. Throughout his career, Lennon achieved great success with numerous number-one singles and recognition from awards such as Grammys, Brit Awards, and inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His influence on music and activism remains significant to this day.

✵ 9. October 1940 – 8. December 1980   •   Other names جان لنون
John Lennon photo
John Lennon: 228   quotes 380   likes

John Lennon Quotes

“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.”

John Lennon

During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oJ9w0x_dzo

Game , Fight

“I've had cocaine, but I don't like it. The Beatles had lots of it in their day, but it's a dumb drug, because you have to have another one 20 minutes later. Your whole concentration goes on getting the next fix. Really, I find caffeine is easier to deal with. … A little mushroom or peyote is not beyond my scope, you know, maybe twice a year or something. You don't hear about it anymore, but people are still visiting the cosmos. We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD. That's what people forget. … They invented LSD to control people and what they did was give us freedom. Sometimes it works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform.”

John Lennon

Playboy interview (1980)

People , Way , Freedom , Forgetting

“Once a thing's been done it's been done, so while this nostalgia — I mean for the '60s and '70s, you know, looking backwards for inspiration, copying the past — how's that rock 'n' roll? Do something of your own. Start something new, you know? Live your lives now. Know what I mean?”

John Lennon

BBC interview, used in a Citroën ad, as quoted in "John Lennon Appearance In Car Ad Stirs Controversy" by Monica Herrera in Billboard (4 March 2010) http://www.billboard.com/column-viralvideos/john-lennon-appearance-in-car-ad-stirs-controversy-1004072693.story#/column-viralvideos/john-lennon-appearance-in-car-ad-stirs-controversy-1004072693.story. Though there has been no official dispute that he made this statement, a YouTube video has claimed that the audio used in the advertisement is not original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipyUk5-wlFg.
Disputed

Nostalgia , Past

“We thought being offered the M. B. E. [Member of the Order of the British Empire] was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We didn't believe it. It was a part we didn't want. We all met and agreed it was daft.”

John Lennon

Quoted by Hunter Davies in The Beatles (1968)

Parting

“Where do people get off saying the Beatles should give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for it. Not in this lifetime, anyway.”

John Lennon

Responding to suggestion that the Beatles should reunite to perform benefit concerts.
Playboy interview (1980)

Money , People , World

“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

Interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder (8 December 1980)

Hope , Time , Dead

“Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you
Julia.”

John Lennon

"Julia" on The Beatles (1968); these lines were adapted from lines of Sand and Foam (1926) by Khalil Gibran: "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you".
Lyrics

“Well, I just want him to grow up happy. That's the main thing.”

John Lennon

Talking about his son, Julian Lennon, in Ticket to Ride : Inside the Beatles' 1964 Tour That Changed the World (2003) by Larry Kane http://books.google.com/books?id=5MYmhGAmfUkC&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&dq=%22well+i+just+want+him+to+grow+up+happy+that's+the+main+thing%22&source=web&ots=o-UOaUrmcr&sig=svkKFzayFfeFgYVwxKn0GsDysPU

Happiness

“I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts.”

John Lennon

Letter to Queen Elizabeth II sent in 1969 with his MBE, explaining why he was returning it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-37787297

Support

“"One cave she wolf go too farther, and I wolf leaf her" he said to his fave rave horse. Of course the horse didn't answer, because as you know they cannot speak, least of all to a garlic eating, stinking, little yellow greasy fascist bastard catholic Spaniard. They soon made it up howevans and Jesus and wee Spastic were once morphia unitely in a love that knew no Suzie. The only thing that puzzled Jesus was why his sugarboot got so annoyed when he called her his little Spastic in public.”

John Lennon book A Spaniard in the Works

"A Spaniard In The Works" from A Spaniard In The Works (1965); this has sometimes been misquoted as if Lennon were speaking specifically about Jesus Christ, when in fact, it is part of the odd narration of an odd story with elements of satire, about a Spanish groom named "Jesus El Pifico".

Love , Wolf , Horse

“The celebrated Mr. K.
Performs his feat on Saturday at Bishops Gate
The Hendersons will dance and sing
As Mr. Kite flies through the ring don't be late
Messrs. K and H. assure the public
Their production will be second to none
And of course Henry the Horse dances the waltz!”

John Lennon

"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (1967)
Lyrics

Singing , Horse , Dance

“She forced me to become avant-garde and take my clothes off, when all I wanted was to be Tom Jones.”

John Lennon

Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 300

Clothes

“It makes rock concerts look like tea parties.”

John Lennon

Commenting on American Football, in interview with Howard Cosell on ABC Television (December 1974)

Tea

“For the benefit of Mr. Kite
there will be a show tonight on trampoline.”

John Lennon

"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (1967)
Lyrics

“You have to be! (Laughs) You might get shot!”

John Lennon

Responding to a reporter question during The Beatles Australian tour of if they were aware of everything going on around them. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5x5UUQM2Qy4

“Mother, you had me, but I never had you.”

John Lennon

"Mother"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

“If art were to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.”

John Lennon

Quoted as a 1968 statement of Lennon's in Sunday Tasmanian (29 September 1996), and in The Rough Guide to the Beatles (2003) by Chris Ingham, p. 271, this actually derives from a statement which Lennon perhaps had been quoting:
Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.
José Ortega y Gasset, in "Art a Thing of No Consequence" in The Dehumanization of Art (1925)
Misattributed

Life , Art

“I think a label like "avant-garde" defeats itself. You learn to have avant-garde exhibitions. The very fact that avant-garde can have an exhibition defeats the purpose of avant-garde, because it's already formalised and ritualised.”

John Lennon

Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 301

Thinking , Learning

“You say you want a Revolution; you better get it on right away.”

John Lennon

"Power to the People"
Lyrics

“They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool.”

John Lennon

"Working Class Hero"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

Hate , Fools

“I've sold my soul to the devil.”

John Lennon

On the commercial success of the Beatles, as quoted in Lennon (1985) by Ray Coleman

Soul

“We never made love in a bag. People probably imagined that we were making love. It was just, all of us are in a bag, you know. The point was the outline of the bag, you know, the movement of the bag, how much we see of a person, you know. But, inside, there might be a lot going on. Or maybe nothing's going on.”

John Lennon

Playboy interview (1980)

Love , People , Making love , Imagination

“Well, that's rubbish, you know. Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible.”

John Lennon

On whether he's under Yoko's spell, under her control
Playboy interview (1980)

“I was looking for a name like the Crickets that meant two things, and from crickets I got to beetles. And I changed [to] B E A because … B E E T L E S didn't mean two things, so I changed … the E to an A. And it meant two things then. … When you said it, people thought of crawly things; and when you read it, it was beat music.”

John Lennon

Pop Chronicles: Show 27 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. Part 1 https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19782/m1/#track/4, 24 August 1964 http://www.jpgr.co.uk/pro202.html.

People , Music , Change , Reading

“In England, there are only two things to be, basically: You are either for the labor movement or for the capitalist movement. Either you become a right-wing Archie Bunker if you are in the class I am in, or you become an instinctive socialist, which I was. That meant I think people should get their false teeth and their health looked after, all the rest of it. But apart from that, I worked for money and I wanted to be rich. So what the hell — if that's a paradox, then I'm a socialist. But I am not anything. What I used to be is guilty about money. That's why I lost it, either by giving it away or by allowing myself to be screwed by so-called managers.”

John Lennon

Playboy interview (1980)

Money , People , Health , Hell

“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 … But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.”

John Lennon

Rolling Stone interview (1980)

Love , Life , Peace , Soul

“Everything is as important as everything else.”

John Lennon

On influences, p. 8
The Beatles Anthology (2000)

“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

Interview on Scene And Heard by David Wigg (25 October 1971)

People , Nature

“What would you suggest I do? Give everything away and walk the streets? The Buddhist says, "Get rid of the possessions of the mind." Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It's like the Beatles. I couldn't walk away from the Beatles. That's one possession that's still tagging along, right?”

John Lennon

Playboy interview (1980)

Money

“What's Bagism? It's like… a tag for what we all do, we're all in a bag ya know, and we realised that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round, and you're in your little tele clique and they're in their…ya know? and we all sort of come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don't communicate. And we all intellectualise about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry… but we're still all "I'm a rock and roller, he's a poet" … so we just came up with the word so you would ask us what bagism is, and we'd say "WE'RE ALL IN A BAG BABY!"”

John Lennon

Interview on The David Frost Show (14 June 1969) http://web.archive.org/web/20010719003543/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob07.html

Art , Music , Communication , Baby

“All that business was awful, it was a fuckin' humiliation. One has to completely humiliate oneself to be what the Beatles were, and that's what I resent. I didn't know, I didn't foresee. It happened bit by bit, gradually, until this complete craziness is surrounding you, and you're doing exactly what you don't want to do with people you can't stand — the people you hated when you were ten.”

John Lennon

Source: As quoted in Rolling Stone (7 January 1971) , and requoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith, 1978 ISBN 0094602204

Hate , People , Business

“The Walrus was Paul!”

John Lennon

"Glass Onion"
Lyrics

“No — we need money first.”

John Lennon

When asked if they wouldn't sing because they couldn't, in a press conference at John F. Kennedy Airport (7 February 1964) http://www.dmbeatles.com/interviews.php?interview=10

Money

“Don´t trust anyone over 30.”

John Lennon

“Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Everyone you meet 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
Gonna get your share Well, we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah, we all shine on
C'mon and on and on, on, on”

John Lennon

John Lennon, in "Instant Karma!" (written 27 January 1970)
Lyrics

Pain , Sun , Star , World

“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me. 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

"Strawberry Fields Forever" (1967)
Lyrics

“All kids draw and write poetry and everything, and some of us last until we're about eighteen, but most drop off at about twelve when some guy comes up and says, "You're no good." That's all we get told all our lives. "You haven't got the ability. You're a cobbler."”

John Lennon

It happened to all of us, but if somebody had told me all my life, "Yeah, you're a great artist," I would have been a more secure person.
Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 9

Guy , Drawing

“I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday."”

John Lennon

He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus."
On the song "Yesterday", written by Paul McCartney
Playboy interview (1980)

Guy

“What would you suggest I do? Give everything away and walk the streets? The Buddhist says, "Get rid of the possessions of the mind."”

John Lennon

Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It's like the Beatles. I couldn't walk away from the Beatles. That's one possession that's still tagging along, right?
Playboy interview (1980)

“It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan — we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert — but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or worse than "Imagine."”

John Lennon

It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge — I do.
On talk of a Beatles re-union
Playboy interview (1980)

God , Imagination , Game , People

“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

Lyrics, Imagine (1971 album)

Peace , Imagination , Religion , Country

“They keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever, and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

John Lennon

"Working Class Hero"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

Sex , Thinking , Religion

“Don't believe that jazz about there's nothing you can do, "turn on and drop out, man"”

John Lennon

because you've got to turn on and drop in, or they're going to drop all over you.
Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 263

“When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.”

John Lennon

During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)

War , Peace

“When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? "No," I said, "I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius."”

John Lennon

Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.
John Lennon interview with Rolling Stone magazine (December 1970)

Thinking , Madness

“It was just a gradual development over the years. Last year was "All You Need Is Love." This year it's "Give Peace a Chance."”

John Lennon

Remember love. The only hope for any of us is peace. Violence begets violence. If you want to get peace, you can get it as soon as you like if we all pull together. You're all geniuses and you're all beautiful. You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace. Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you'll get it as soon as you like. Okay?
Statement to the press in July 1969 after the release of the Plastic Ono Band's single "Give Peace a Chance", as quoted in The Beatles: An Oral History by David Pritchard and Alan Lysaght (1998) New York: Hyperion. ISBN: 0786864362. OCLC: 39093547. p. 285.

Peace , Chance , Love , Making love