Mao Zedong: Quotes about people (page 2)

Mao Zedong was Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Mao Zedong: 362   quotes 18   likes

“Throughout history new and correct ideas have often failed at the outset to win recognition from the majority of people and have to develop by twists and turns in struggle. Often correct and good things have first been regarded not as fragrant flowers but poisonous weeds.”

VII: On "Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Content" and "Long Term Coexistence and Mutual Supervision"
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

“Within the ranks of the people, democracy is correlative with centralism and freedom with discipline. They are the two opposites of a single entity, contradictory as well as united, and we should not one-sidedly emphasize one to the denial of the other. Within the ranks of the people, we cannot do without freedom, nor can we do without discipline; we cannot do without democracy, nor can we do without centralism. This unity of democracy and centralism, of freedom and discipline, constitutes our democratic centralism. Under this system, the people enjoy extensive democracy and freedom, but at the same time they have to keep within the bounds of socialist discipline.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 民主自由都是相对的,不是绝对的,都是在历史上发生和发展的。在人民内部,民主是对集中而言,自由是对纪律而言。这些都是一个统一体的两个矛盾着的侧面,它们是矛盾的,又是统一的,我们不应当片面地强调某一个侧面而否定另一个侧面。在人民内部,不可以没有自由,也不可以没有纪律;不可以没有民主,也不可以没有集中。这种民主和集中的统一,自由和纪律的统一,就是我们的民主集中制。在这个制度下,人民享受着广泛的民主和自由;同时又必须用社会主义的纪律约束自己。这些道理,广大人民群众是懂得的。

“What should our policy be towards non-Marxist ideas? As far as unmistakable counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs of the socialist cause are concerned, the matter is easy, we simply deprive them of their freedom of speech. But incorrect ideas among the people are quite a different matter. Will it do to ban such ideas and deny them any opportunity for expression? Certainly not. It is not only futile but very harmful to use crude methods in dealing with ideological questions among the people, with questions about man's mental world. You may ban the expression of wrong ideas, but the ideas will still be there. On the other hand, if correct ideas are pampered in hothouses and never exposed to the elements and immunized against disease, they will not win out against erroneous ones. Therefore, it is only by employing the method of discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas and overcome wrong ones, and that we can really settle issues.”

" VIII. ON "LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOSSOM LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT CONTEND" AND "LONG-TERM COEXISTENCE AND MUTUAL SUPERVISION" "
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 对于非马克思主义的思想,应该采取什么方针呢?对于明显的反革命分子,破坏社会主义事业的分子,事情好办,剥夺他们的言论自由就行了。对于人民内部的错误思想,情形就不相同。禁止这些思想,不允许这些思想有任何发表的机会,行不行呢?当然不行。对待人民内部的思想问题,对待精神世界的问题,用简单的方法去处理,不但不会收效,而且非常有害。不让发表错误意见,结果错误意见还是存在着。而正确的意见如果是在温室里培养出来的,如果没有见过风雨,没有取得免疫力,遇到错误意见就不能打胜仗。因此,只有采取讨论的方法,批评的方法,说理的方法,才能真正发展正确的意见,克服错误的意见,才能真正解决问题。

“The richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people. It is mainly because of the unorganized state of the Chinese masses that Japan dares to bully us. When this defect is remedied, the the Japanese aggressor, like a mad bull crashing into a ring of flames, will be surrounded by hundreds of millions of our people standing upright, the mere sound of their voices will strike terror into him, and he will be burned to death.”

On Protracted Warfare (1938)
Original: (zh-CN) 战争的伟力之最深厚的根源,存在于民众之中。日本敢于欺负我们,主要的原因在于中国民众的无组织状态。克服了这一缺点,就把日本侵略者置于我们数万万站起来了的人民之前,使它像一匹野牛冲入火阵,我们一声唤也要把它吓一大跳,这匹野牛就非烧死不可。

“The state system, a joint dictatorship of all the revolutionary classes and the system of government, democratic centralism--these constitute the politics of New Democracy, the republic of New Democracy, the republic of the anti-Japanese united front, the republic of the new Three People's Principles with their Three Great Policies' the Republic of China in reality as well as in name. Today we have a Republic of China in name but not in reality, and our present task is to create the reality that will fit the name.”

On New Democracy (1940)
Original: (zh-CN) 国体——各革命阶级联合专政。政体——民主集中制。这就是新民主主义的政治,这就是新民主主义的共和国,这就是抗日统一战线的共和国,这就是三大政策的新三民主义的共和国,这就是名副其实的中华民国。我们现在虽有中华民国之名,尚无中华民国之实,循名责实,这就是今天的工作。

“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?”

On Guerilla Warfare http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1937/guerrilla-warfare/ch06.htm (1937), Chapter 6 - "The Political Problems of Guerilla Warfare"
This is usually aphorized as "The people are the sea that the revolutionary swims in," or an equivalent.

“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.”

Chapter 6 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch06.htm, originally published in Speech at the Supreme State Conference (September 8, 1958).
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

“In ordinary circumstances, contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. However, if they are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our guard, antagonism may arise. In a socialist country, a development of this kind is usually only a localized and temporary phenomenon. The reason is that the system of exploitation of man by man has been abolished and the interests of the people are the same.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 在一般情况下,人民内部的矛盾不是对抗性的。但是如果处理得不适当,或者失去警觉,麻痹大意,也可能发生对抗。这种情况,在社会主义国家通常只是局部的暂时的现象。这是因为社会主义国家消灭了人剥削人的制度,人民的利益在根本上是一致的。

“Without a People's army, the people have nothing.”

Chapter 9 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch09.htm, originally published in On Coalition Government (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 296-97.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

“The contradictions between the enemy and us are antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic aspect in addition to an antagonistic aspect.”

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 敌我之间的矛盾是对抗性的矛盾。人民内部的矛盾,在劳动人民之间说来,是非对抗性的;在被剥削阶级和剥削阶级之间说来,除了对抗性的一面以外,还有非对抗性的一面。

“"You are dictatorial." My dear sirs, you are right, that is just what we are. All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.”

The People's Democratic Dictatorship, speech (30 June 1949) commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party
Original: (zh-CN) “你们独裁。”可爱的先生们,你们讲对了,我们正是这样。中国人民在几十年中积累起来的一切经验,都叫我们实行人民民主专政,或曰人民民主独裁,总之是一样,就是剥夺反动派的发言权,只让人民有发言权。