John Lennon

We’ve been on our peace gig, as we call it, for a year solid. And people say, ‘Do you think it’s having any effect?’ I can’t answer that. It’s like asking me in the Cavern, ‘Are you gonna make it?’ In the back of my mind I thought, I’m gonna make it, but I couldn’t lay it on the line. And I think that peace is more tangible than Beatles.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

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.

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.

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.

Everything is clearer when you’re in love.

Children have helped me a lot.

Instinct is probably the essence of past experience and knowledge stored up for later use. There are many, you know, who think that this life journey through the world is not the first one we have made. Haven’t you ever come across children who knew things that it was impossible for them to have learned? Have you ever gone to a place for the first time and felt sure that you had been there before? That’s one of the reasons I do not travel much.

It is bad luck to be superstitious.

I realize that advice is worth what it costs – that is, nothing.

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

I like to surprise myself.

The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

Life is trying things to see if they work.

Should a man quit at 40 he is failure-Retire at that age is sorry failure.

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

It’s so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

There is safety in small beginnings and there is unlimited capital in the experience gained by growing.

I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.