Yoko Ono, born on February 18, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan, is a renowned Japanese artist, musician, and peace activist. Best known for her association with John Lennon of the Beatles, they married in 1969 and became a controversial but influential couple involved in peace activism. Ono’s artistic career spans avant-garde art, performance art, filmmaking, and conceptual art, with significant contributions to the Fluxus movement. She has released experimental albums and collaborated with Lennon on “Double Fantasy” in 1980. Despite being a polarizing figure, Yoko Ono is respected in the art world and has received awards for her impactful contributions to both art and activism.
Yoko Ono Quotes
1. “You change the world by being yourself.”
— Yoko Ono
2. “Art is a way of survival.”
— Yoko Ono
3. “You may think I’m small, but I have a universe inside my mind.”
— Yoko Ono
4. “Art is my life and my life is art.”
— Yoko Ono
5. “Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.”
— Yoko Ono
6. “World peace is one project that we have to do together.”
— Yoko Ono
7. “Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.”
— Yoko Ono
8. “The sky is always there for me, while my life has been going through many, many changes. When I look up the sky, it gives me a nice feeling, like looking at an old friend.”
— Yoko Ono
9. “It’s better to dance than to march through life.”
— Yoko Ono
10. “When people don’t understand my work, I don’t feel like explaining.”
— Yoko Ono
11. “Smile to the future and it will smile back to you.”
— Yoko Ono
12. “Try to say nothing negative about anybody for three days, for forty-five days, for three months. See what happens to your life.”
— Yoko Ono
13. “Confusion has become a state of mind, more of less; we’re trained to be confused. Quite simply, the people in power are keeping us down, keeping us docile and keeping us consuming with this confusion. It’s a cultural confusion and it is deliberate.”
— Yoko Ono
14. “I’m just trying to do my best every day, hoping that I have done my best every day, and its very easy in a way, but also it’s not that easy. Every day counts.”
— Yoko Ono
15. “But only art and music have the power to bring peace.”
— Yoko Ono
16. “Every drop in the ocean counts.”
— Yoko Ono
17. “I trust myself. You need that to survive.”
— Yoko Ono
18. “When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: ‘Just breathe.’”
— Yoko Ono
19. “You can be very wild and still be very wise.”
— Yoko Ono
20. “Healing yourself is connected with healing others.”
— Yoko Ono
21. “Most people think that I am too optimistic, but my optimism is based on the thought that negative thinking is a luxury that we can’t afford.”
— Yoko Ono
22. “Experiencing sadness and anger can make you feel more creative, and by being creative, you can get beyond your pain or negativity.”
— Yoko Ono
23. “If your life changes, we can change the world, too.”
— Yoko Ono
24. “Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”
— Yoko Ono
25. “Listen to the sound of the earth turning.”
— Yoko Ono
26. “Remember love. Remember our hearts are one. Even when we are fighting with each other, our hearts are beating in unison. I love you.”
— Yoko Ono
27. “There’s a long life ahead of you and it’s going to be beautiful, as long as you keep loving and hugging each other.”
— Yoko Ono
28. “Look at yourself in the mirror and don’t be afraid to notice how beautiful you are.”
— Yoko Ono
29. “The opposite of love is fear, not hate.”
— Yoko Ono
30. “All my life, I have been in love with the sky. Even when everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me.”
— Yoko Ono
31. “Be kind to yourself this evening. Buy something for yourself. Treat yourself to a meal. Look in the mirror and give yourself a smile.”
— Yoko Ono
32. “We are never alone. We are all aspects of one great being. No matter how far apart we are, the air links us.”
— Yoko Ono
33. “The regret of my life is that I have not said ‘I love you’ often enough.”
— Yoko Ono
34. “All women are feminists. Being a feminist is allowing woman to be natural, for what she is, whatever it is. All of us can be natural and we’re all feminists in that sense.”
— Yoko Ono
35. “Nobody’s life is a bed of roses. We all have crosses to bear and we all just do our best.”
— Yoko Ono
36. “We get shy about saying things like I love you. Life is so short. It’s crazy, that we hesitate to express our true thoughts to each other.”
— Yoko Ono
37. “We are all dreamers creating the next world, the next beautiful world for ourselves and for our children.”
— Yoko Ono
38. “Every moment in our lives is a miracle we should enjoy instead of ignoring.”
— Yoko Ono
39. “Loneliness is equal to the radius of one’s awareness.”
— Yoko Ono
40. “You can’t love someone unless you are in an equal position with them. A lot of women have to cling to men out of fear or insecurity, and that’s not love – basically that’s why women hate men.”
— Yoko Ono
41. “Each time we don’t say what we wanna say, we’re dying.”
— Yoko Ono
42. “It is sad that the air is the only thing we share. No matter how close we get to each other, there is always air between us.”
— Yoko Ono
43. “Don’t ever give up on life. Life can be so beautiful, especially after you’ve spent a lot of time with it.”
— Yoko Ono
44. “What a beautiful future it will be! Don’t worry about life being boring. It will never be.”
— Yoko Ono
45. “Japanese are very proud and workaholics. Proud workaholics.”
— Yoko Ono
46. “Money is not everything. We don’t need billions and trillions of dollars.”
— Yoko Ono
47. “I’m kind of honored to be a dragon lady. The dragon is a very powerful, mythical animal.”
— Yoko Ono
48. “Look at a star in the sky not as something unreachable but as a planet you would visit one day.”
— Yoko Ono
49. “We’re all water from different rivers, That’s why it’s so easy to meet, We’re all water in this vast, vast ocean, Someday we’ll evaporate together.”
— Yoko Ono
50. “Give peace a chance and let’s hope that one day we will all live in peace.”
— Yoko Ono
51. “Distance doesn’t exist, in fact, and neither does time. Vibrations from love or music can be felt everywhere, at all times.”
— Yoko Ono
52. “Tape the sound of friends laughing together. Save it for a rainy day.”
— Yoko Ono
53. “There’s nothing bad about feminism. We have to help each other, because there’s a lot of women in the world who are suffering because the fact is we’re not equal. It’s as plain as that. It’s still a men’s world. I don’t know. We’ll go on with it.”
— Yoko Ono
54. “Walking on thin ice, I’m paying the price. I’m throwing the dice in the air. Why must we learn it the hard way, and play the game of life with your heart?”
— Yoko Ono
55. “I don’t think you should always stay calm in a tense situation, because you might not ever confront the problem. Maybe it’s better to actually let yourself be tense – and find a solution.”
— Yoko Ono
56. “Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world. Just start thinking peace, and the message will spread quicker than you think.”
— Yoko Ono
57. “Fracking kills, and it doesn’t just kill us. It kills the land, nature and, eventually, the whole world.”
— Yoko Ono
58. “Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken. A stick becomes a flute when it’s loved.”
— Yoko Ono
59. “Transform jealousy to admiration, and what you admire will become part of your life.”
— Yoko Ono
60. “Use your blood to paint. Keep painting until you faint. Keep painting until you die.”
— Yoko Ono
61. “Watch the sun until it comes into your body and stays as a tiny sun. It will keep your face shining even in the coldest of winter.”
— Yoko Ono
62. “Is truth always positive? Of course. Once the truth comes out, you know, it’s all right. We’re scared that if the truth comes out that it’s not all right. It’s the other way around.”
— Yoko Ono
63. “A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I’ve got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time.”
— Yoko Ono
64. “Marriage is a difficult project. When seven years have passed and all your body’s cells have been replaced, you’re meant to experience that seven-year itch.”
— Yoko Ono
65. “Society was built on male power, and women’s power was… ignored is the best word to describe it I suppose, we have been running society on one power, half a power really. And that’s so terrible. The world needs women’s power too.”
— Yoko Ono
66. “When you go through a negative situation, don’t think about it. Make it positive.”
— Yoko Ono
67. “Countries have lost their culture because what they wanted was money. Money became the running theme in every country and culture was sacrificed.”
— Yoko Ono
68. “Our thoughts determine our age.”
— Yoko Ono
69. “Next time you meet a ‘foreigner’, remember it’s only like a window with a different shape to it and the person who’s sitting inside is you.”
— Yoko Ono
70. “I have only one life, so I want to make sure it’s a good one.”
— Yoko Ono
71. “Events are the best teacher for us. You try to learn from people, there is always some bend to it.”
— Yoko Ono
72. “I am extremely rebellious. I have this strong, defiant spirit.”
— Yoko Ono
73. “When I speak out against the guns or against the big corporations, some of my friends say, ‘Oh Yoko, be careful. These people have all the power.’ But, you know, most people don’t speak out because they are frightened.”
— Yoko Ono
74. “See what you can do. See what you want to do. See what you will do about it. Find your way out.”
— Yoko Ono
75. “You have to release your emotion in order to keep your sanity.”
— Yoko Ono
76. “When I got pregnant, I had to concentrate on being pregnant for a whole nine months, even though I knew it was ruining my career at the time.”
— Yoko Ono
77. “People are still thinking of solving problems by violence and war, and that has to stop.”
— Yoko Ono
78. “Words are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.”
— Yoko Ono
79. “I think that all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being. And a wizard, which is a male version of a witch, is kind of revered, and people respect wizards. But a witch, my god, we have to burn them.”
— Yoko Ono
80. “If I was a Jewish girl in Hitler’s day, I would become his girlfriend. After ten days in bed, he would come to my way of thinking.”
— Yoko Ono
81. “Stand in the evening light until you become transparent or until you fall asleep.”
— Yoko Ono
82. “Imagine a dolphin dancing in the sky. Let it dance with joy. Think of yourself at the bottom of the ocean watching.”
— Yoko Ono
83. “I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive.”
— Yoko Ono
84. “When you are feeling bad, do one thing a day to make your heart dance. It could be a simple thing like looking up at the sky.”
— Yoko Ono
85. “Kill all the men you have slept with. Put the bones in a box and send it into the sea with flowers.”
— Yoko Ono
86. “The human race is a very, very magical race. We have a magic power of witches and wizards. We’re here on this earth to unravel the mystery of this planet. The planet is asking for it.”
— Yoko Ono
87. “I just go with the flow, so any style can be in my music – that makes it exciting.”
— Yoko Ono
88. “Unclog your mind. Unclog your room. Arrange your room in a way you wish your mind would be.”
— Yoko Ono
89. “Hide until everybody goes home. Hide until everybody forgets about you. Hide until everybody dies.”
— Yoko Ono
90. “When you are suffering, you become more understanding about yourself, but also about other people’s sufferings too. That’s the first step to understand somebody is to understand their sufferings. So then love follows.”
— Yoko Ono
91. “I love to work. Doing things we love is how we relax, I think.”
— Yoko Ono
92. “Everybody’s an artist. Everybody’s God. It’s just that they’re inhibited.”
— Yoko Ono
93. “When you go to war, both sides lose totally.”
— Yoko Ono
94. “Performance art is going to be the future. Plays on Broadway are so restricted. But performance art is like haikus, just one line thing. And it’s more casual but more interesting.”
— Yoko Ono
95. “Sometimes I am happy and sometimes not. I am, after all, a human being, you know. And I am glad that we are sometimes happy and sometimes not. You get your wisdom working by having different emotions.”
— Yoko Ono
96. “Art for me is like breathing.”
— Yoko Ono
97. “We don’t live by just sleeping and eating. We need pride and dignity in our lives. Work gives you that.”
— Yoko Ono
98. “It’s better that you’re criticized than complimented as a person.”
— Yoko Ono
99. “What the Beatles did was something incredible, it was more than what a band could do. We have to give them respect.”
— Yoko Ono
100. “We’ve been filled with great treasure for one purpose: to be spilled.”
— Yoko Ono
101. “Dancing is a very healthy thing to do for our body.”
— Yoko Ono
102. “We created a thing called culture and civilization, and now we’re about to lose it because we’re trying to destroy everything. And I kind of miss it. I miss culture and civilization.”
— Yoko Ono
103. “I’m free from holding personal anger because I can express what I want through my music.”
— Yoko Ono
104. “I really feel that artists or musicians are controversial people. Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity. If people are not doing that, they’re not artists – they’re artisans.”
— Yoko Ono
105. “Life keeps getting better. If anything, you start to carry a certain pride in having survived all those years.”
— Yoko Ono
106. “When you say ‘I love you’, you are not just saying it to that person. You are saying ‘I love you’ to yourself, the planet & The Universe.”
— Yoko Ono
107. “My beauty secret is… nothing! I don’t drink too much water. I don’t eat very well. Sometimes I cheat and grab some chocolate. The best thing is to eat what you want, but not very much.”
— Yoko Ono
108. “One day, the dance charts will be the biggest chart in the music world. Because we all need to dance. This planet will be a fun planet when the judges in court will end the day with a dance!”
— Yoko Ono
109. “I think I’m an observer in a way. And my life was not so – well, my life was bad too – but it’s just that I had the sense to cope with it. But it’s probably not that easy to cope if you’re in a society where you get killed when your husband dies.”
— Yoko Ono
110. “Women are put in a position of feeling embarrassed about their bodies. It’s so ridiculous, but also astounding – we have to always be apologetic about having created the human race.”
— Yoko Ono
111. “Losing my daughter was a very serious pain. There was always some empty space in my heart.”
— Yoko Ono
112. “People say that this new generation is so used to the Internet that their heads are already different. They can’t read a book from beginning to end. That is not a tragedy. The book changes form.”
— Yoko Ono
113. “Creativity is innate and it manifests itself in so many forms. It needs to come out somehow or it destroys you in some way.”
— Yoko Ono
114. “Keep going until your efforts start to make things better in your hometown.”
— Yoko Ono
115. “Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity.”
— Yoko Ono
116. “Tape the sound of the moon fading at dawn. Give it to your mother to listen to when she’s in sorrow.”
— Yoko Ono
117. “Every time I create something, just before that there’s a kind of – you’re feeling very low, you’re feeling very down and insecure. Then you create and then it’s fine. This is the way I observe me doing it.”
— Yoko Ono
118. “The 1960s were about releasing ourselves from conventional society and freeing ourselves.”
— Yoko Ono
119. “If you have too many quotes from other people in your head, you can’t create. You have to keep your head empty. That’s why I am constantly enjoying the sky, the park, the walk.”
— Yoko Ono
120. “Be kind once a day – even if it’s just in your mind.”
— Yoko Ono
121. “The Establishment likes people who take no responsibility and cannot respect themselves.”
— Yoko Ono
122. “Tell the Earth how much you care, how beautiful she is, and how much you love her. Ask for her forgiveness for having been so careless.”
— Yoko Ono
123. “Marriage is a gamble, let’s be honest.”
— Yoko Ono
124. “Think of the Earth as a turning point in eternity. Think of the Earth as a meeting point in infinity.”
— Yoko Ono
125. “Even my mother told me: ‘You are a handsome woman, but you’re not pretty. Pretty girls don’t have those big bones.’”
— Yoko Ono
126. “I am the type of person who would do something thoroughly if someone said, “I don’t think you can do it.” I am extremely rebellious. I have this strong, defiant spirit.”
— Yoko Ono
127. “If your judgement is clouded, you must be carrying too many things which are being a burden to you.”
— Yoko Ono
128. “I often wish my mother had died so that at least I could get some people’s sympathy. But there she was, a perfectly beautiful mother.”
— Yoko Ono
129. “Music is like my security blanket.”
— Yoko Ono
130. “The first idea, the first art piece I ever did, was when I was four. I cut the seed of a pear in half and the seed of an apple in half in put those two halves together and planted the seed, hoping a very strange tree might grow. And I never stopped.”
— Yoko Ono
131. “No one person could have broken up a band, especially one the size of the Beatles.”
— Yoko Ono
132. “People accuse artists of being narcissists – of course we are! If we don’t like ourselves, who’s going to like us?”
— Yoko Ono
133. “After my husband John Lennon passed away, I tried to smile for my health.”
— Yoko Ono
134. “I started to notice that simpleness is divine. I think we all start trying to use very complex harmonies and rhythms and all that because of a certain kind of ambition. But I was always trying to create something simple.”
— Yoko Ono
135. “My father was a banker, but he was an independent spirit. He was a very good pianist and very much into music.”
— Yoko Ono
136. “Faces can lie. Backsides can’t.”
— Yoko Ono
137. “I saw that nothing was permanent. You don’t want to possess anything that is dear to you because you might lose it.”
— Yoko Ono
138. “I relate to happiness as an ecstatic moment – something you don’t create, you encounter.”
— Yoko Ono
139. “Sometimes I have compared myself with a scientist or something: when you discover something and you don’t expect the whole world to understand it. I always thought I was doing that kind of activity, in art and in music too.”
— Yoko Ono
140. “When you’re imagining peace, you can’t kill anyone. That’s good isn’t it?”
— Yoko Ono
141. “When I hear music, my body just starts to move. It has nothing to do with training or anything. That’s just me. That’s just my body. And I was like that as a child, too.”
— Yoko Ono
142. “I just like to explore all sorts of different forms – no, ‘explore’ is not even the word – enjoy. You don’t want to limit yourself to a particular form.”
— Yoko Ono
143. “I have a woman inside my soul.”
— Yoko Ono
144. “I don’t work for a long time on anything. I don’t have too much time in life.”
— Yoko Ono
145. “John would have been the first white rapper. And also he would have cherished the Internet.”
— Yoko Ono
146. “Society tells you that when you’re old you have to retire. You have to defy that.”
— Yoko Ono
147. “The people have got to trust in themselves.”
— Yoko Ono
148. “Please know that being 80 is not a scary thing. When you’re 80, your life is much freer.”
— Yoko Ono
149. “I did not break up the Beatles. You can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to blame me for breaking the Beatles up, you should be thankful that I made them into myth rather than a crumbling group.”
— Yoko Ono
150. “The odds of not meeting in this life are so great that every meeting is like a miracle. It’s a wonder that we don’t make love to every single person we meet.”
— Yoko Ono
