Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

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.

— Mao Zedong

To read too many books is harmful.

— Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.

— Mao Zedong

All reactionaries are paper tigers.

— Mao Zedong

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.

— Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

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.

— Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

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, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the correctness of these ideas in such action. Then once again concentrate ideas from the masses and once again go to the masses so that the ideas are persevered in and carried through. And so on, over and over again in an endless spiral, with the ideas becoming more correct, more vital and richer each time. Such is the Marxist theory of knowledge.

— Mao Zedong

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 h

— Mao Zedong

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

— Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

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

— Mao Zedong

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

— Mao Zedong

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.

— Mao Zedong

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.

— Mao Zedong

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things, that are decisive. The contest of strength is not only a contest of military and economic power, but also a contest of human power and morale. Military and economic power is necessarily wielded by people.

— Mao Zedong

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

— Mao Zedong

The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.

— Mao Zedong