John lennon quotes

As I play the game of life, I try to make it better each and every day. And when I struggle in the night, The magic of the music seems to light the way.

Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and even that's barely possible.

I believe time wounds all heels.

Tell the truth and make it rhyme

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.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love.

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

I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!

It's amazing how low you go to get high.

Without a job all there is to life is boredom and insecurity.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

A dream you dream alone is only a dream.

Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.

There are no problems, only solutions.

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.

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

Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.

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

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.

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

A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it

I wouldn't say I was a born writer; I'm a born thinker.

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

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.

One day at a time is all we do. One day at a time is good for you

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.

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

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

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

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.

The greatest artists always come round to simplicity.

The people have the power. All we have to do is awaken the power in the people.

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

The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn't represent the people. It controls them.

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

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

It's fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that-it's all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and it's plain sailing. Everything is unknown-then you're ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?

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

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.

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

I don't believe in yesterday, by the way.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

Everything they told me as a kid has already been disproved by the same type of “experts” who made them up in the first place.

If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then it wasn't wasted time.

Violence begets violence, you know. And you can't kill off all the violent people or all the murderers. We'd have to kill off the government.

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

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

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

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.

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

paranoia is just a heightened sense of awareness

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

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow.

Love is the Answer. What was the Question?

The sun is up, the sky is blue It's beautiful, and so are you.

You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

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

Everything is clearer when you're in love.

Happiness is a good vibe for peace.

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.

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

I recently got into Haiku in Japan and I just think it's fantastic. Obviously, when you get rid of a whole section of illusion in your mind you're left with great precision.

Instant Karma is going to get you.

One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things other people didn't see.

Creativity is a gift. It doesn't come through if the air is cluttered.

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.

A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words.

What I'd have liked would have been the money and the hit records without the fame.

Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful.

Sarcasim is the lowest form of humor.

You can't cheat kids. If you cheat them when they're children they'll make you pay when they're sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that's finally when they're old enough to stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite you've been all this time. You've never given me what I really wanted, which is you.

Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go

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

I cannot be what I am not.

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.

Before Elvis there was nothing.

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

Songwriting is like ... being possessed. You try to go to sleep but the song won't let you.

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

I remember a time when everybody I loved hated me because I hated them.

Don't underestimate the importance of happiness. As long as you're happy, who cares what you do?

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?

Don't hate what you don't understand!

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

I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.

The artist's role isn't to tell people how to feel, but reflect.

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

Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

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

And, because my role in society - or any artist or poet's role - is to try to 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. And it's like that's the job of the artist in society, not to...they're not some alienated being living on the outskirts of town. It's fine to live on the outskirts of town, but artists must reflect what we all are. … If that's taken it too much on meself, I feel that artists are that - they're reflections of society... Mirrors.

You are not your emotions,you have emotions,and you can master them.

if everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!

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.

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.

Happiness is inside you, not with another person

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.

If you want peace, you won't get it with violence.

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

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

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

My teacher asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I said happy. She told me I don't understand the assignment, I told her she doesn't understand life.

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.

You can manicure a cat but can you caticure a man?

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.

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

I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically - any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster.

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.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

All music is rehash. 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.

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.

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

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?

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.