The quotations of

John Lennon

British musician

1940–1980

15 quotes, most often on Love and Music.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
Double Fantasy (1980), “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”
- Life & Death
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right, and I will be proved right. We are more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first⁠—rock’n’roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
- Christianity
Love means having to say you’re sorry every fifteen minutes.
- Love
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), “God”
- God
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.
Last interview (1980)
- Art
Love is needing to be loved.
- Love
You won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.
- Success
When real music comes to me⁠—the music of the speres, the music that surpasseth 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.
- Music
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.
1972 Mike Douglas Show, quoted in: Lawrence, Ken (2005) John Lennon: In His Own Words, p. 107.
- Music
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.
During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)
- War & Peace
We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD, by the way.
The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 179
- Comedy
I don’t have any romanticism about any part of my past.
Playboy interview (1980)
- Time
Part of me suspects that I’m a loser and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.
Playboy interview (1980)
- Pride
I don’t mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore.
The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 120
- Fame
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.
Interview for KFRC RKO Radio (8 December 1980)
- History
- Responsibility

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