xy

As quoted in Guitar Player (1 August 2004), and in &quot;Pax Patter&quot; at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.abc.net.au/civics/rights/pax.htm <br class="br">Variant: When we say &quot;War is over if you want it,&quot; we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we&#x27;d have peace.

Song All You Need Is Love

Often apocryphally and jokingly attributed to Lennon in an interview where he was asked whether fellow Beatle Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/john-lennon-ringo-best-drummer/ <br class="br">Misattributed

attributed to Lennon, but no verifiable source found
Disputed

Disputed

Interview on The David Frost Show (14 June 1969)
Context: We're trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it's the only way to get people aware that peace is possible, and it isn't just inevitable to have violence. Not just war — all forms of violence. People just accept it and think 'Oh, they did it, or Harold Wilson did it, or Nixon did it,' they're always scapegoating people. And it isn't Nixon's fault. We're all responsible for everything that goes on, you know, we're all responsible for Biafra and Hitler and everything. So we're just saying "SELL PEACE" — anybody interested in peace just stick it in the window. It's simple but it lets somebody else know that you want peace too, because you feel alone if you're the only one thinking 'wouldn't it be nice if there was peace and nobody was getting killed.' So advertise yourself that you're for peace if you believe in it.

Playboy interview (1980)
Context: It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.

"Ballad of John and Yoko" (1969), referring to his "bed-in" honeymoon of March 1969.
Lyrics

Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 179
Context: We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD, by the way. Everything is the opposite of what it is, isn't it? They brought out LSD to control people, and what they did was give us freedom. Sometimes it works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. But it sure as hell performs them. If you look a the government report book on acid, the only ones who jumped out of windows because of it were the ones in the Army. I never knew anybody who jumped out of a window or killed themselves because of it.

"Woman"
Lyrics, Double Fantasy (1980)

One of the most controversial statements Lennon ever made, this was published in England's Evening Standard newspaper (4 March 1966) as part of an interview with writer Maureen Cleave.
Context: 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. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

"All You Need Is Love"
Lyrics

Source: Lyrics, Mind Games (1973)
Context: We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
Doing the mind guerrilla,
Some call it magic — the search for the grail.

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