Mao Zedong Quotes

This is a movement on a vast scale. It has indeed mobilized the masses. It is of very great significance to the revolutionization of the thinking of the people throughout the country.

新民主主义的文化，同样应该是“为一般平民所共有”的，即是说，民族的、科学的、大众的文化，决不应该是“少数人所得而私”的文化。
上述一切，就是我们共产党人在现阶段上，在整个资产阶级民主革命的阶段上所主张的一般纲领，或基本纲领。对于我们的社会主义和共产主义制度的将来纲领或最高纲领说来，这是我们的最低纲领。实行这个纲领，可以把中国从现在的国家状况和社会状况向前推进一步，即是说，从殖民地、半殖民地和半封建的国家和社会状况，推进到新民主主义的国家和社会。
这个纲领所规定的无产阶级在政治上的领导权，无产阶级领导下的国营经济和合作社经济，是社会主义的因素。但是这个纲领的实行，还没有使中国成为社会主义社会。
我们共产党人从来不隐瞒自己的政治主张。我们的将来纲领或最高纲领，是要将中国推进到社会主义社会和共产主义社会去的，这是确定的和毫无疑义的。我们的党的名称和我们的马克思主义的宇宙观，明确地指明了这个将来的、无限光明的、无限美妙的最高理想。每个共产党员入党的时候，心目中就悬着为现在的新民主主义革命而奋斗和为将来的社会主义和共产主义而奋斗这样两个明确的目标，而不顾那些共产主义敌人的无知的和卑劣的敌视、污蔑、谩骂或讥笑；对于这些，我们必须给以坚决的排击。对于那些善意的怀疑者，则不是给以排击而是给以善意的和耐心的解释。所有这些，都是异常清楚、异常确定和毫不含糊的。

毫无疑问，我们应当批评各种各样的错误思想。不加批评，看着错误思想到处泛滥，任凭它们去占领市场，当然不行。有错误就得批判，有毒草就得进行斗争。但是这种批评不应当是教条主义的，不应当用形而上学方法，应当力求用辩证方法。要有科学的分析，要有充分的说服力。教条主义的批评不能解决问题。我们是反对一切毒草的，但是我们必须谨慎地辨别什么是真的毒草，什么是真的香花。我们要同群众一起来学会谨慎地辨别香花和毒草，并且一起来用正确的方法同毒草作斗争。

鲁迅在中国的价值，据我看要算是中国的第一等圣人。孔夫子是封建社会的圣人，鲁迅则是现代中国的圣人。我们为了永久纪念他，在延安成立了鲁迅图书馆，在延长开办了鲁迅师范学校，使后来的人们可以想见他的伟大。

Wide, wide flow the nine streams through the land,
Dark, dark threads the line from south to north.
Blurred in the thick haze of the misty rain
Tortoise and Snake hold the great river locked.<p>The yellow crane is gone, who knows whither?
Only this tower remains a haunt for visitors.
I pledge my wine to the surging torrent,
The tide of my heart swells with the waves.

We should allow democratic personages to challenge us with opposing views and give them a free hand to criticize us. Otherwise we would be a little like the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang was mortally afraid of criticism and went in fear and trepidation each time the Political Council was in session. Criticisms from democratic personages can be of only two kinds, those that are wrong and those that are not. Criticisms that are not wrong can help remedy our shortcomings while wrong ones must be refuted. As for such types as Liang Shu-ming, Peng Yi-hu and Chang Nai-chi, if they want to fart, let them. That will be to our advantage, for everybody can judge whether the smell is good or foul, and through discussion the majority can be won over and these types isolated. If they want to create trouble, let them have their fill of it.

原来矛盾着的各方面，不能孤立地存在。假如没有和它作对的矛盾的一方，它自己这一方就失去了存在的条件。

要使几亿人中的中国人生活得好，要把我们这个经济落后、文化落后的国家，建设成为富裕的、强盛的、 具有高度文化的国家，这是一个很艰巨的任务。我们所以要整风，现在要整风，将来还要整风，要不断把我们身上的错误东西整掉，就是为了使我们能够更好地担负起这项任务，更好地同党外的一切立志改革的志士仁人共同工作。

It is difficult to avoid mistakes, the point is to correct them honestly. Too many people have been arrested in Szechwan and many mass organizations are branded as reactionary. All these are wrong, but they have been quickly rectified.

Democracy is practiced within the ranks of the people, who enjoy the rights of freedom of speech, assembly, association and so on. The right to vote belongs only to the people, not to the reactionaries. The combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people's democratic dictatorship.

Hence, if in any process there are a number of contradictions, one of them must be the principal contradiction playing the leading and decisive role, while the rest occupy a secondary and subordinate position. Therefore, in studying any complex process in which there are two or more contradictions, we must devote every effort to funding its principal contradiction. Once this principal contradiction is grasped, all problems can be readily solved. This is the method Marx taught us in his study of capitalist society. Likewise Lenin and Stalin taught us this method when they studied imperialism and the general crisis of capitalism and when they studied the Soviet economy. There are thousands of scholars and men of action who do not understand it, and the result is that, lost in a fog, they are unable to get to the heart of a problem and naturally cannot find a way to resolve its contradictions.

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 war is decided by the people--not by one of two new types of weapon.

国家的统一，人民的团结，国内各民族的团结，这是我们的事业必定要胜利的基本保证。但是，这并不是说在我们的社会里已经没有任何的矛盾了。没有矛盾的想法是不符合客观实际的天真的想法。在我们的面前有两类社会矛盾，这就是敌我之间的矛盾和人民内部的矛盾。这是性质完全不同的两类矛盾。

我欢迎尼克松上台。为什么呢?他的欺骗性也有，但比较地少一点，你信不信?他跟你来硬的多，来软的也有。他如果想到北京来，你就捎个信，叫他偷偷地，不要公开，坐上一架飞机就可以来嘛。谈不成也可以，谈得成也可以嘛。何必那么僵着?但是你们美国是没有秘密的，一个总统出国是不可能秘密的。他要到中国来，一定会大吹大擂，就会说其目的就是要拉中国整苏联，所以他现在还不敢这样做。整苏联，现在对美国不利；整中国，对于美国也不利。

Marxist philosophy holds that the law of the unity of opposites is the fundamental law of the universe. This law operates universally, whether in the natural world, in human society, or in man's thinking. Between the opposites in a contradiction there is at once unity and struggle, and it is this that impels things to move and change. Contradictions exist everywhere, but they differ in accordance with the different nature of different things. In any given phenomenon or thing, the unity of opposites is conditional, temporary and transitory, and hence relative, whereas the struggle of opposites is absolute.