Chiang Kai-shek quotes

Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China for several decades. As the head of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), he played a crucial role in modern Chinese history and the fight against both warlords and Japanese invasion. He eventually retreated to Taiwan, where he established a separate government after the Chinese Civil War. Here are 25 of his quotes:

Mao is a strange man whose personality is like the Tao, sometimes yin and sometimes yang; he has a soft-as-cotton outer layer, but at the same time has sharp needles hiding inside... I do not think he will achieve anything, in the end, he will be crushed inside my palm.

Chiang Kai-shek

It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son.

Chiang Kai-shek

I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests.

Chiang Kai-shek

War is not only a matter of equipment, artillery, group troops or air force; it is largely a matter of spirit, or morale.

Chiang Kai-shek

There are three essential factors in all human activity: spirit, materials, and action.

Chiang Kai-shek

The rise or fall of Shanghai means the birth or death of the whole nation.

Chiang Kai-shek

If imperialism is not banished from the country, China will perish as a nation. If China does not perish, then imperialism cannot remain.

Chiang Kai-shek

We must use every inch of our blood to take back every inch of our land, you ten thousand youths and soldiers.

Chiang Kai-shek

The only world leader who sympathised with Indian aspirations at that time was Chiang Kai-shek of China whom Pandit Nehru had denounced as a reactionary tool of Western imperialism only a few years earlier.

Chiang Kai-shek

As long as we have Taiwan, the Communists can never win.

Chiang Kai-shek

Democracy is liberty - a liberty which does not infringe on the liberty nor encroach on the rights of others; a liberty which maintains strict discipline, and makes law its guarantee and the basis of its exercise. This alone is true liberty; this alone can produce true democracy.

Chiang Kai-shek

The sky cannot have two suns.

Chiang Kai-shek

We become what we do.

Chiang Kai-shek

China is the largest and most ancient of Asiatic countries, but it is not for us boastfully to talk of her right to a position of 'leadership' among those countries.

Chiang Kai-shek

China has no desire to replace Western imperialism in Asia with an Oriental imperialism or isolationism of its own or anyone else.

Chiang Kai-shek

Only a fighting nation can make itself responsible for world peace, and such a nation must organize its material resources and manpower with the highest possible degree of efficiency.

Chiang Kai-shek

My good health is due to a soup made of white doves. It is simply wonderful as a tonic.

Chiang Kai-shek

I have often said China is not lacking in material resources. The question is whether we can make full and good use of them.

Chiang Kai-shek

Landowners and influential men of all kinds, especially members of political councils, ought to set an example to the people. The young members of rich families should offer themselves for military service. If not one of two sons, at least one of three sons should be ready to do so.

Chiang Kai-shek

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.

Chiang Kai-shek

"I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests." Chiang had absolutely no intention of stopping the war against the Communists.

Chiang Kai-shek

China not only fights for her own independence, but also for the liberation of every oppressed nation. For us, the Atlantic Charter and President Roosevelt's proclamation of the Four Freedoms for all peoples are corner-stones of our fighting faith.

Chiang Kai-shek