Mao Zedong

The enemy will not perish of himself. Neither will the Chinese reactionaries nor the aggressive forces of U.S. imperialism in China step down from the stage of history of their own accord.

We must oppose all erroneous tendencies, whether 'Left' or Right, that are harmful to the unity of the Party and the people.

The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant.

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

Wherever there is struggle, there is sacrifice, and death is a common occurrence. But we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death.

We must not only be good at destroying the old world, we must also be good at building the new.

The more difficulties, the more determined we are to overcome them.

We should go to the masses and learn from them, synthesize their experience into better, more articulate principles and methods, then, as a result, tell the masses and call upon them to put these principles and methods into practice so as to solve their problems and help them achieve liberation and happiness.

The history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.

The revolutionary base areas are like the palms of our hands, and the enemy-occupied areas are like our fingers. We must hold on to the palms and extend our fingers.

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be 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.

War is the continuation of politics.

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.

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

The contradiction between the people and the enemy is irreconcilable.

The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.

Imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution.

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

We must learn to do economic work from all who know how to do it, regardless of whether they are capitalists or not.

The atom bomb is a paper tiger.