John Lennon Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms

• October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980
• British
• Musician, Songwriter, Peace Activist, Founding Member of The Beatles

John Lennon was a British musician, songwriter, and peace activist best known as a founding member of The Beatles, one of the most influential bands in music history. With songs like Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, and All You Need Is Love, Lennon became a symbol of countercultural ideals, promoting peace, nonviolence, and social change. His solo work and outspoken activism—particularly against the Vietnam War—cemented his role as a voice for global conscience. While celebrated for his artistry and message, he was also a complex figure, occasionally criticized for contradictions in his personal life. Lennon’s tragic assassination in 1980 shocked the world, but his legacy endures as a powerful icon of music, idealism, and the human spirit.

1. “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.”
2. “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.”
3. “You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.”
4. “Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.”
5. “It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.”
6. “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.”
7. “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.”
8. “Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.”
9. “I believe time wounds all heels.”
10. “I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.”
11. “Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.”
12. “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”
13. “There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.”
14. “Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.”
15. “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.”
16. “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.”
17. “The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.”
18. “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
19. “The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.”
20. “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.”
21. “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.”
22. “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.”
23. “And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.”
24. “Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.”
25. “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.”
26. “He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.”
27. “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
28. “Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.”
29. “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.”
30. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”
31. “I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!”
32. “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
33. “Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
34. “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
35. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
36. “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.”
37. “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.”
38. “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?”
39. “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.”
40. “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.”
41. “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?”
42. “Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
43. “You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.”
44. “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
45. “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.”
46. “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
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. “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.”
49. “You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!”
50. “The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?”
51. “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.”
52. “All you need is love.”
53. “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.”
54. “As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.”
55. “The more I see the less I know for sure.”