Quotes from Mao Zedong

There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.

The question is not whether or not there should be a cult of the individual, but rather whether or not the individual concerned represents the truth, if he does then he should be worshiped.

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.

Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it.

The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them.

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.

Revolutionary war is an antitoxin which not only eliminates the enemy's poison but also purges us of our own filth.

Look at World War II, at Hitler's cruelty. The more cruelty, the more enthusiasm for revolution.

Whoever has an army has power and that war decides everything.

Not just in China, but everywhere in the world without exception, one either leans to the side of imperialism or the side of socialism. Neutrality is mere camouflage; a third road does not exist.

There is in guerrilla warfare no such thing as a decisive battle; there is nothing comparable to the fixed, passive defense that characterizes orthodox war.

We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war.

People like me sound like a lot of big cannons.

We must thoroughly clear away all ideas among our cadres of winning easy victories through good luck, without hard and bitter struggle, without sweat and blood.

History shows that wars are divided into two kinds-just and unjust. All wars that are progressive are just, and all wars that impede progress are unjust.

Politics is war without blood, while war is politics with blood.

History is a symptom of our disease

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.

In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help train us in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance.

The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't.

Political work is the life-blood of all economic work.

Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.

Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing culture in our land.

In literary and art criticism there are two criteria, the political and the artistic.