Mao Zedong quotes

Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary leader and founding father of the People’s Republic of China. Known for his role in shaping modern China, his policies and campaigns deeply influenced the country's history. He remains a highly controversial figure, associated with both major achievements and significant upheavals. Here are 254 of his quotes:

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.

Mao Zedong

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.

Mao Zedong

The differences between friends cannot but reinforce their friendship.

Mao Zedong

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

Mao Zedong

All reactionaries are paper tigers.

Mao Zedong

We shall support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.

Mao Zedong

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!

Mao Zedong

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 troops. The former may be likened to water the latter to the fish who inhabit it. How may it be said that these two cannot exist together?

Mao Zedong

People who try to commit suicide - don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.

Mao Zedong

Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory.

Mao Zedong

Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly.

Mao Zedong

Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.

Mao Zedong

New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties and setbacks or the exertion of tremendous efforts.

Mao Zedong

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

Mao Zedong

Now there are two different attitudes towards learning from others. One is the dogmatic attitude of transplanting everything, whether or not it is suited to our conditions. This is no good. The other attitude is to use our heads and learn those things that suit our conditions, that is, to absorb whatever experience is useful to us. That is the attitude we should adopt.

Mao Zedong

If we did ten things, nine were bad and got disclosed by the newspapers, we will be over. Then I will go, to the countryside, lead the peasant and revolt. If the Liberation Army do not follow me, I will get the Red Army.

Mao Zedong

Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organization from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.

Mao Zedong

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.

Mao Zedong

All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.

Mao Zedong

If the U.S. monopoly capitalist groups persist in pushing their policies of aggression and war, the day is bound to come when they will be hanged by the people of the whole world. The same fate awaits the accomplices of the United States.

Mao Zedong

Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.

Mao Zedong