“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.”

—  John Lennon

During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "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 …" by John Lennon?
John Lennon photo
John Lennon 228
English singer and songwriter 1940–1980

Related quotes

John Lennon photo

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

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

As quoted in Guitar Player (1 August 2004), and in "Pax Patter" at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.abc.net.au/civics/rights/pax.htm
Variant: 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.

Prem Rawat photo

“Peace needs to be in everyone's life. Of all the things we have tried in this world, there is one thing we have never given a chance. That one thing is peace. If we want to hope for something, maybe we could hope in our heart that peace will come in our life. The peace that we are looking for is within. It is in the heart, waiting to be felt, and I can help you get in touch with it. It is not the world that needs peace; it is people. When people in the world are at peace within, the world will be at peace.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Undated
Source: Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prem_Rawat.

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner photo

“Instead of it (World War I) having been a war to end wars - it (the Paris Peace Conference) is a Peace to end Peace.”

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner (1854–1925) British statesman and colonial administrator

A remark to his private secretary, Lord Sandon, in May 1919. From Terence H. O'Brien, Milner, Viscount Milner of St James and Cape Town 1954-1925, 1979, Constable, p. 335.

George W. Bush photo

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C. http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm (June 18, 2002)
2000s, 2002

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say "We must not wage war." It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
Context: We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say "We must not wage war." It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace. There is a fascinating little story that is preserved for us in Greek literature about Ulysses and the Sirens. The Sirens had the ability to sing so sweetly that sailors could not resist steering toward their island. Many ships were lured upon the rocks, and men forgot home, duty, and honor as they flung themselves into the sea to be embraced by arms that drew them down to death. Ulysses, determined not to be lured by the Sirens, first decided to tie himself tightly to the mast of his boat, and his crew stuffed their ears with wax. But finally he and his crew learned a better way to save themselves: they took on board the beautiful singer Orpheus whose melodies were sweeter than the music of the Sirens. When Orpheus sang, who bothered to listen to the Sirens? So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war.

“There can be no real peace when living with someone who has already declared war, no peace but capitulation. And even that, as we see around us, doesn't lead to further peace but to further degradation and exploitation. We're responsible for not only what we do but for what is in our power to stop. Before we can speak of peace, we have to speak honestly of stopping, by any and all means possible, those who have declared war on the world and on us. Those who destroy wont stop because we ask nicely. There is only one language that they understand, and everyone here knows what it is. Yet we don't speak of it openly.”

Derrick Jensen book A Language Older Than Words

A Language Older Than Words (2000)

Bill Whittle photo

“We fight wars not to have peace, but to have a peace worth having. Slavery is peace. Tyranny is peace. For that matter, genocide is peace when you get right down to it. The historical consequences of a philosophy predicated on the notion of no war at any cost are families flying to the Super Bowl accompanied by three or four trusted slaves and a Europe devoid of a single living Jew.”

Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor

HISTORY https://web.archive.org/web/20030401221233/http://ejectejecteject.com/archives/000039.html (29 March 2003)
2000s

Adolf Hitler photo

“Now, as a strong State, we can be ready to pursue a policy of understanding with surrounding States. We want nothing from them. We have no wishes or demands; we desire peace. … No other people can need peace more than we.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Speech in Saarbrücken (9 October 1938), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 10
1930s

Golo Mann photo

“We cannot have another world war. War is the wrong word. We should ban the term ‘World War III’ and say instead apocalypse or holocaust.”

Golo Mann (1909–1994) German historian

Hamburg’s Die Zeit, August 30, 1985. cited in: The Watchtower, 2/15 1986.

Carole Lombard photo

“At first thought, we might say, 'our job is to win a war'…but I am sure it would be closer to the hearts of all of us to say, 'We are fighting a war to assure a peace…our kind of peace.”

Carole Lombard (1908–1942) American actress

Speaking at an Indianapolis war-bond rally, 15 January 1942
Quoted in Carole Lombard, The Hoosier Tornado by Wes D. Gehring, p. 1

Related topics