John Lennon

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

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“The more I see, the less I know for sure.”

“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 o...”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”

“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?”

“Nothing is real.”

“The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.”

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

“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.”

“…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.”

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

“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.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I believe time wounds all heels.”

“Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The more I see the less I know for sure.”

“It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man.”

“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.”

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

“Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.”

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

“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.”

“Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground.”

“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 You may say that 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”

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”

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

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

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

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

“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. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plain sailing.”

“People think the Beatles know what's going on. We don't. We're just doing it.”

“When somebody is angry with us, we draw a halo around his or her head, in our minds. Does the person stop being angry then? Well, we don't know! We know, though, that when we draw a halo around a person, suddenly the person starts to look like an angel to us.”

“Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.”

“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”

“Everything is clearer when you're in love.”

“I was feeling insecure you might not love me anymore”

“Living is Easy with Eyes Closed.”

“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.”

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

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

“There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.”

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

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

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives”

“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.”

“I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will...”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.”

“And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he's no longer God... They'll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.”

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

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

“I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity.”

“We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity.”

“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.”

“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.”