Quotes by Mao Zedong

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

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

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

“Children are the masters of the new society.”

“I knew the Classics, but disliked them. What I enjoyed were the romances of Old China, and especially stories of rebellions. I read the Yo Fei Chuan, Shui Hu Chuan, Fan T'ang, San Kuo, and Hsi Yu C...”

“Many people think it impossible for guerrillas to exist for long in the enemy's rear. Such a belief reveals lack of comprehension of the relationship that should exist between the people and the tr...”

“The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. it looks terrible but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a...”

“We thank Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin for giving us a weapon. This weapon is not a machine-gun, but Marxism-Leninism.”

“Stalin made mistakes. He made mistakes towards us, for example, in 1927. He made mistakes towards the Yugoslavs too. One cannot advance without mistakes... It is necessary to make mistakes. The par...”

“All the rest of the world uses the word electricity. They've borrowed the word from English. But we Chinese have our own word for it!”

“Imperialism fears China and the Arabs. Israel and Taiwan are bases of operation for Imperialism in Asia. They created Israel for the Arabs and Taiwan for us. They both have the same objective.”

“Maybe you're afraid of sinking. Don't think about it. If you don't think about it, you won't sink. If you do, you will.”

“Racial discrimination in the United States is a product of the colonialist and imperialist system. The contradiction between the Black masses in the United States and the U.S. ruling circles is a c...”

“Those writings of mine aren't anything. There is nothing instructive in what I wrote.”

“I like rightists... I am comparatively happy when these people on the right come into power.”

“I said, now that I’m collaborating with the rightists, my reputation isn’t good. I said, in your [the Americans'] country there are two parties and it’s been said that the Democrats are more enligh...”

“My closest friend and brother – this world is lucky to have a great personality as Kim Il Sung. This causes my boundless happiness. The fate of the world revolution and the international communist ...”

“Recently there has been a falling off in ideological and political work among students and intellectuals, and some unhealthy tendencies have appeared. Some people seem to think that there is no lon...”

“In the ideological field, the question of who will win in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has not been really settled yet. We still have to wage a protracted struggle again...”

“Anyone should be allowed to speak out, whoever he may be, so long as he is not a hostile element and does not make malicious attacks, and it does not matter if he says something wrong. Leaders at a...”