Book detail: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This volume compiles a selection of Mao Zedong's most influential quotes and political writings, offering insights into his ideologies and leadership style. It includes extracts from The Little Red Book, a widely distributed and iconic text in China, which encapsulates Mao's political thought and revolutionary principles.
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“Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“We should go to the masses and learn from them, synthesize their experience into better, articulated principles and methods, then do propaganda among the masses, and call upon them to put these principles and methods into practice so as to solve their problems and help them achieve liberation and happiness.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The young people are the most active and vital force in society. They are the most eager to learn and the least conservative in their thinking. This is especially so in the era of socialism.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“In order to build a great socialist society it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The masses in any given place are generally composed of three parts, the relatively active, the intermediate and the relatively backward. The leaders must therefore be skilled in uniting the small number of active elements around the leadership and must rely on them to raise the level of the intermediate elements and to win over the backward elements.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“So long as a person who has made mistakes . . . honestly and sincerely wishes to be cured and to mend his ways, we should welcome him and cure his sickness so that he can become a good comrade. We can never succeed if we just let ourselves go and lash at him.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The officers do not beat the men; the officers and men receive equal treatment. Soldiers are free to hold meetings and speak out. Trivial formalities have been done away with and the accounts are open for all to inspect.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Don't wait untill problems pile up and cause a lot of trouble before trying to solve them. Leaders must march ahead the movement, not lag behind it.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The only way to settle questions of an ideological nature or controversial issues among the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and education, and not by the method of coercion or repression.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is an objective law independent of man's will. However much the reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, eventually revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“We Communists never conceal our political views. Definitely and beyond all doubt, our future or maximum program is to carry China forward to socialism and communism. Both the name of our Party and our Marxist world outlook unequivocally point to this supreme ideal of the future, a future of incomparable brightness and splendor.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Socialist revolution aims at liberating the productive forces. The changeover from individual to socialist, collective ownership in agriculture and handicrafts and from capitalist to socialist ownership in private industry and commerce is bound to bring about a tremendous liberation of the productive forces. Thus, the social conditions are being created for a tremendous expansion of industrial and agricultural production.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“In China the struggle to consolidate the socialist system, the struggle to decide whether socialism or capitalism will prevail, will still take a long historical period. However, we should all realize that the new system of socialism will unquestionably be consolidated. We can assuredly build a socialist state with modern industry, modern agriculture, and modern science and culture.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“We must have faith, first, that the peasant masses are ready to advance step by step along the road of socialism under the leadership of the Party, and second, that the Party is capable of leading the peasants along this road. These two points are the essence of the matter, the main current.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“There is a serious tendency towards capitalism among the well-to-do peasants. This tendency will become rampant if we in the slightest way neglect political work among the peasants during the co-operative movement and for a very long period after.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“By over-all planning, we mean planning which takes into consideration the interests of the 600 million people of our country. In drawing up plans, handling affairs or thinking over problems, we must proceed from the fact that China has a population of 600 million people, and we must never forget this fact.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“In addition to the leadership of the Party, a decisive factor is our population of 600 million. More people mean a greater ferment of ideas, more enthusiasm and more energy. Never before have the masses of the people been so inspired, so militant and so daring as at present.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“"Don't you want to abolish state power?" Yes, we do, but not right now. We cannot do it yet. Why? Because imperialism still exists, because domestic reaction still exists, because classes still exist in our country. Our present task is to strengthen the people's state apparatus - mainly the people's army, the people's police and the people's courts - in order to consolidate national defense and protect the people's interests.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The People's democratic dictatorship needs the leadership of the working class. For it is only the working class that is most far-sighted, most selfless and most thoroughly revolutionary. The entire history of revolution proves that without the leadership of the working class revolution fails and that with the leadership of the working class revolution triumphs.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The People's democratic dictatorship is based on the alliance of the working class, the peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, and mainly on the alliance of the workers and the peasants, because these two classes comprise 80 to go per cent of China's population. These two classes are the main force in overthrowing imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionaries. The transition from New Democracy to socialism also depends mainly upon their alliance.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The People's Liberation Army is always a fighting force. Even after countrywide victory, our army will remain a fighting force during the historical period in which classes have not been abolished in our country and the imperialist system still exists in the world. On this point, there should be no misunderstanding or wavering.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“We have an army for fighting as well as an army for labour. For fighting, we have the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies but even they do a dual job, warfare and production. With these two kinds of armies, and with a fighting army skilled in these two tasks and in mass work, we can overcome our difficulties and defeat Japanese imperialism.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Our national defense will be consolidated and no imperialist will be allowed to invade our territory again. Our People's armed forces must be maintained and developed with the brave and steeled People's Liberation Army as their foundation. We will have not only a powerful army but also a powerful air force and a powerful navy.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“All our officers and fighters must always bear in mind that we are the great People's Liberation Army, we are the troops led by the great Communist Party of China. Provided we constantly observe the directives of the Party, we are sure to win.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of class.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“All the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Was not Hitler a paper tiger? Was Hitler not overthrown? U.S. imperialism has not yet been overthrown and it has the atomic bomb. I believe it also will be overthrown. It, too, is a paper tiger.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“On what basis should our policy rest? It should rest on our own strength, and that means regeneration through one's own efforts. We are not alone; all the countries and people in the world opposed to imperialism are our friends. Nevertheless, we stress regeneration through our own efforts. Relying on the forces we ourselves organize, we can defeat all Chinese and foreign reactionaries.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“To win countrywide victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand li.... The Chinese revolution is great, but the road after the revolution will be longer, the work greater and more arduous. This must be made clear now in the Party. The comrades must be helped to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness in their style of work. The comrades must be helped to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties and setbacks or the exertion of tremendous efforts.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“At certain times in the revolutionary struggle, the difficulties outweigh the favorable conditions and so constitute the principal aspect of the contradiction and the favorable conditions constitute the secondary aspect. But through their efforts the revolutionaries can overcome the difficulties step by step and open up a favorable new situation, thus a difficult situation yields place to a favorable one.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“What is work? Work is struggle. There are difficulties and problems in those places for us to overcome and solve. We go there to work and struggle to overcome these difficulties. A good comrade is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Soldiers are the foundation of an army; unless they are imbued with a progressive political spirit, and unless such a spirit is fostered through progressive political work, it will be impossible to achieve genuine unity between officers and men, impossible to arouse their enthusiasm for the War of Resistance to the full, and impossible to provide an excellent basis for the most effective use of all our technical equipment and tactics.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Wherever our comrades go they must build good relations with the masses, be concerned for them and help them overcome their difficulties. We must unite with the masses, the more of the masses we unite with, the better”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Take the ideas of the masses and concentrate them, then go to the masses, persevere in the ideas and carry them through, so as to form correct ideas of leadership-such is the basic method of leadership.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding, it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as a dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution. It is not just a matter of understanding the general laws derived by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin from their extensive study of real life and revolutionary experience, but of studying their standpoint and method in examining and solving problems.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“If we have a correct theory but merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into practice, then that theory, however good, is of no significance.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“How is Marxist-Leninist theory to be linked with the practice of the Chinese revolution? To use a common expression, it is by "shooting the arrow at the target". As the arrow is to the target, so is Marxism-Leninism to the Chinese revolution. Some comrades, however, are "shooting without a target", shooting at random, and such people are liable to harm the revolution.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Those experienced in work must take up the study of theory and must read seriously; only then will they be able to systematize and synthesize their experience and raise it to the level of theory, only then will they not mistake their partial experience for universal truth and not commit empiricist errors.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class forced them into numerous uprisings against its rule.... It was the class struggles of the peasants, the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real motive force of historical development in Chinese feudal society.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“In the final analysis, national struggle is a matter of class struggle. Among the whites in the United States, it is only the reactionary ruling circles that oppress the black people. They can in no way represent the workers, farmers, revolutionary intellectuals and other enlightened persons who comprise the overwhelming majority of the white people.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“It is up to us to organize the people. As for the reactionaries in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them. Everything reactionary is the same; if you do not hit it, it will not fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The enemy will not perish of himself. Neither will the Chinese reactionaries nor the aggressive forces of U.S. imperialism in China step down from the stage of history of their own accord.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“Our stand is that of the proletariat and of the masses. For members of the Communist Party, this means keeping to the stand of the Party, keeping to Party spirit and Party policy.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“After the enemies with guns have been wiped out, there will still be enemies without guns; they are bound to struggle desperately against us, and we must never regard these enemies lightly. If we do nor now raise and understand the problem in this way, we shall commit the gravest mistakes.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
“The imperialists and domestic reactionaries will certainly not take their defeat Lying down and they will struggle to the last ditch. After there is peace and order throughout the country, they will still engage in sabotage and create disturbances in various ways and will try every day and every minute to stage a comeback. This is inevitable, beyond all doubt, and under no circumstances must we relax our vigilance.”
Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works