“Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people.”

—  Mao Zedong

The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains (1945)
Context: There is an ancient Chinese fable called "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains". It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. He called his sons, and hoe in hand they began to dig up these mountains with great determination. Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, "How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up those two huge mountains." The Foolish Old Man replied, "When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can't we clear them away?" Having refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. God was moved by this, and he sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs. Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people. One is imperialism, the other is feudalism. The Chinese Communist Party has long made up its mind to dig them up. We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. If they stand up and dig together with us, why can't these two mountains be cleared away?

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people." by Mao Zedong?
Mao Zedong photo
Mao Zedong 181
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of… 1893–1976

Related quotes

Kim Il-sung photo

“My God is none other than the people. Only the popular masses are omniscient and omnipotent and almighty on earth. Therefore my lifetime motto is: "The people are my God."”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Comment to Cheondoist independence activist Kim In Jin (1936), described in autobiography With the Century (1993)

Giordano Bruno photo

“Nature is none other than God in things…”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

As quoted in Elements of Pantheism (2004) by Paul A. Harrison
Context: Nature is none other than God in things... Animals and plants are living effects of Nature; Whence all of God is in all things... Think thus, of the sun in the crocus, in the narcissus, in the heliotrope, in the rooster, in the lion.

Fred Phelps photo

“God hates America, and those calamities last Tuesday are none other than the wrath of God, smiting fag America”

Fred Phelps (1929–2014) American pastor and activist

2000s, God Hates America (2001)
Context: God hates America, and those calamities last Tuesday are none other than the wrath of God, smiting fag America... That wasn't any accident. That wasn't any coincidence. There's only America to blame for those tragedies.

Ramakrishna photo

“If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 559

Johann Sebastian Bach photo

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) German late baroque era composer

Variant: The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and the refreshment of the spirit.

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“It is our duty to help liberate that God who is stifling in us, in mankind, in masses of people living in darkness.”

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: It is our duty to help liberate that God who is stifling in us, in mankind, in masses of people living in darkness.
We must be ready at any moment to give up our lives for his sake. For life is not a goal; it is also an instrument, like death, like beauty, like virtue, like knowledge. Whose instrument? Of that God who fights for freedom.
We are all one, we are all an imperiled essence. If at the far end of the world a spirit degenerates, it drags down our spirit into its own degradation. If one mind at the far end of the world sinks into idiocy, our own temples over-brim with darkness.
For it is only One who struggles at the far end of earth and sky. One. And if He goes lost, it is we who must bear the responsibility. If He goes lost, then we go lost.
This is why the salvation of the Universe is also our salvation, why solidarity among men is no longer a tenderhearted luxury but a deep necessity and self-preservation, as much a necessity as, in an army under fire, the salvation of your comrade-in-arms.

Ramana Maharshi photo
Mao Zedong photo

“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.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

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。

Bartolomé de las Casas photo
Sergey Nechayev photo

Related topics