Quotes by Mao Zedong

“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Let a hundred flowers bloom.”

“I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever.”

“To read too many books is harmful.”

“An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.”

“What we have in excess is women. So if you want, we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands. Let them go to your place. They will create disasters. That way you can lessen our burden.”

“We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.”

“You say, away with you Communists; we say, away with you imperialists.”

An army of the people is invincible!

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

...this protracted war will pass through three stages. The first stage covers the period of the enemys strategic offensive and our strategic defensive. The second stage will be the period of the enemys strategic consolidation and our preparation for the counter-offensive. The third stage will be the period of our strategic counter-offensive and the enemys strategic retreat.

History is a symptom of our disease

Our attitude towards ourselves should be to be insatiable in learning and towards others to be tireless in teaching.

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.

Under the white population of the United States of America only the reactionary classes oppress the black population. Under no circumstance can they represent the workers, farmers and revolutionary intellectuals and other enlighted people who form the majority of the white population.

Keep the enemy in the dark about where and when our forces will attack.

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

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