Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.
Jim Munro: I think the statement is false. Link sellers are likely to disagree with me. :)
Michael Martinez: You can rank any content without links, good or bad. And you can try to rank any content WITH Links. The links may or may not help. But other people`s content may outrank your content regardless of whether you use links or not, and regardless of how good or bad your content may be. The search engine isn`t just looking at your links and content it is looking at everyone`s links and content.