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Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong Quotes

Former Chairman of the Communist Party of China

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Famous Mao Zedong Quotes

“The correctness of any of our policies has always to be tested and is always being tested by the masses themselves. We ourselves constantly examine our own decisions and policies. We correct our mistakes whenever we find them. We draw conclusions from all positive and negative experiences and apply those conclusions as widely as possible. In these ways relations between the Communist party and the masses of the people are constantly being improved.”

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Author:Mao Zedong
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“We must help all our young people to understand that ours is still a very poor country, that we cannot change this situation radically in a short time, and that only through the united efforts of our younger generation and all our people, working with their own hands, can China be made strong and prosperous within a period of several decades. The establishment of our socialist system has opened the road leading to the ideal society of the future, but to translate this ideal into reality needs hard work.”

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Author:Mao Zedong
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“The agricultural co-operative movement has been a severe ideological and political struggle from the very beginning. No cooperative can be established without going through such a struggle. Before a brand-new social system can be built on the site of the old, the site must be swept clean. Invariably, remnants of old ideas reflecting the old system remain in people's minds for a long time, and they do not easily give way. After a co-operative is established, it must go through many more struggles before it can be consolidated. Even then, the moment it relaxes its efforts it may collapse.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“Apart from their other characteristics, the outstanding thing about China's 600 million people is that they are “poor and blank”. This may seem a bad thing, but in reality it is a good thing. Poverty gives rise to the desire for changes, the desire for action and the desire for revolution. On a blank sheet of paper free from any mark, the freshest and most beautiful characters can be written; the freshest and most beautiful pictures can be painted.”

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Author:Mao Zedong
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“After the countrywide victory of the Chinese revolution and the solution of the land problem, two basic contradictions will still exist in China. The first is internal, that is, the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. The second is external, which is the contradiction between China and the imperialist countries. Consequently, after the victory of the people's democratic revolution, the state power of the people's republic under the leadership of the working class must not be weakened but must be strengthened.”

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Author:Mao Zedong
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“"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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“This army is powerful because all its members have a conscious discipline; they have come together and they fight not for the private interests of a few individuals or a narrow clique, but for the interests of the broad masses and of the whole nation. The sole purpose of this army is to stand firmly with the Chinese people and to serve them whole-heartedly.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“...it is impossible for a genuine people's revolution in any country to win victory without various forms of help from the international revolutionary forces.”

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Book:On people's democratic dictatorship: written in commemoration of the 28th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, July 1, 1949
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“Some people have read a few Marxist books and think themselves quite learned but what they have read has not penetrated, has not struck root in their minds, so that they do not know how to use it and their class feelings remain as of old. Others are very conceited and having learned some book-phrases, think them terrific and are very cocky; but whenever a storm blows up, they take a stand very different from that of the workers and the majority of the peasants. They waver while the latter stand firm, they equivocate while the latter are forthright.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMindBookDifferentUseFeelingsClassKnow HowStudyRootsMajorityWorkersBlowStormFirmPhrasesLatterTerrificPeasantsMarxistCockyConceitedStand Firm
Book:Speech at the Chinese Communist Party's National Conference on Propaganda Work: March 12, 1957
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“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.”

PeopleWayPersonsMatterStatesBlackWhiteUnitedClassUnited StatesStruggleMajorityWorkersFinalsCirclesAnalysisRevolutionaryEnlightenedFarmersOverwhelmingBlack PeopleRulingReactionariesClass Struggle
Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“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.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“Whoever sides with the revolutionary people is a revolutionary. Whoever sides with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism is a counter-revolutionary. Whomever sides with the revolutionary people in words only but acts otherwise is a revolutionary in speech. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense.”

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Author:Mao Zedong
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“Every comrade must be brought to understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a Communist is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.”

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Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“Communists must never separate themselves from the majority of the people or neglect them by leading only a few progressive contingents in an isolated and rash advance, but must take care to forge close links between the progressive elements and the broad masses. This is what thinking in terms of the majority means.”

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Book:Mao Tse-tung chu tso hsüan tu
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