Quotes from Sun Yat-sen

At Kobe, whither I fled from Hong Kong, I took a step of great importance. I cut off my cue, which had been growing all my life.

In antiquity, agriculture and industry depended completely on human labor; but now, with the development of natural forces that human labor cannot match, agriculture and industry have fallen completely into the hands of the capitalists. The greater the amount of capital, the more abundant the resources that can be utilized.

I have passed English medical examinations in Hong Kong... In my youth, I experienced overseas studies. The languages of the West, its literature, its political science, its customs, its mathematics, its geography, its physics and chemistry - all these I have had the chance to study.

The Chinese people have only family and clan solidarity; they do not have national spirit… they are just a heap of loose sand…. Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.

It is my idea to make capitalism create socialism in China so that these two economic forces of human evolution will work side by side in future civilization.

If we want the Republic to be solid, we must first build its foundation. We need not look abroad for this foundation; we should seek it in the hearts of all the people of the nation.

China's republican politics is like a child who just started schooling. He must have a good teacher and be surrounded by good friends. By the same token, the Chinese people, new to the republican politics, must be educated properly. The revolutionary government should be the people's tutor to impart advanced awareness and experience.

Class war is not the cause of social progress; it is a disease developed in the course of social progress. The cause of the disease is the inability to subsist, and the result of the disease is war.

At present, England, America, France, Italy, and Japan constitute the so-called 'Big Five.' Even with the rise of Germany and Soviet Russia, the world has only seven Powers. When China becomes strong, she can easily win first place in the Council of Nations.

We say that a group united and developed in the royal way, by forces of nature, is a race; a group united and developed by way of might, by human forces, is a state. This, then, is the difference between a race or nationality and a state.

We shall establish an united Chinese Republic in order that all the peoples - Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans, Tartars, and Chinese - should constitute a single powerful nation.

We must wait for the official history of the Chinese Revolution to record in greater detail the invaluable work of our Japanese friends.

The key to success is action, and the essential in action is perseverance.

One may have broad or narrow talents, but only education renders them useful. Schools set up to train people will develop the intelligence of those who have it and end the stupidity of those who do not, providing a specialty to those who have narrow talent and broad knowledge to those with all-around ability.

This thing called nationalism is a treasure that a country uses to try to develop and a nationality uses to try to survive. China has lost this treasure.

We should use our old moral values and our love of peace as the foundation of national reconstruction and look forward to the day when we shall become leaders in world reconstruction upon lines of international justice and good will.

The goal of the revolution is to achieve the people's rights, but during the course of the revolution, we must stress military power - and the two are mutually contradictory.

When the nation can act freely, then China may be called strong. To make the nation free, we must each sacrifice his freedom.

All my comrades must continue to exert their efforts according to my 'Programme of National Reconstruction,' 'Outline of Reconstruction,' the 'Three Principles of the People,' and the 'Manifesto' issued by the First National Congress of our Party, and strive on earnestly for the consummation of the end we have in view.

Revolution is usually a bloody affair. Our Revolution of 1911 did not shed much blood because our people are a peace-loving people. This peace-loving quality is the greatest virtue of the Chinese.

The whole world is one family.

An individual should not have too much freedom. A nation should have absolute freedom.

For forty years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one aim in view - the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.