„Marxists should not be afraid of criticism from any quarter. Quite the contrary, they need to temper and develop themselves and win new positions in the teeth of criticism and in the storm and stress of struggle. Fighting against wrong ideas is like being vaccinated -- a man develops greater immunity from disease as a result of vaccination. Plants raised in hothouses are unlikely to be hardy. Carrying out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend will not weaken, but strengthen, the leading position of Marxism in the ideological field.“

— Mao Zedong

" 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) 马克思主义者不应该害怕任何人批评。相反，马克思主义者就是要在人们的批评中间，就是要在斗争的风雨中间，锻炼自己，发展自己，扩大自己的阵地。同错误思想作斗争，好比种牛痘，经过了牛痘疫苗的作用，人身上就增强免疫力。在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。实行百花齐放、百家争鸣的方针，并不会削弱马克思主义在思想界的领导地位，相反地正是会加强它的这种地位。

Adopted from Wikiquote. Edited by Monnystr. Last update Dec. 8, 2021.

Mao Zedong179

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of… 1893 - 1976

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„Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land. Different forms and styles in art should develop freely and different schools in science should contend freely. We think that it is harmful to the growth of art and science if administrative measures are used to impose one particular style of art or school of thought and to ban another. Questions of right and wrong in the arts and sciences should be settled through free discussion in artistic and scientific circles and through practical work in these fields. They should not be settled in summary fashion.“

— Mao Zedong Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 1893 - 1976

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Source: (zh-CN) 百花齐放、百家争鸣的方针，是促进艺术发展和科学进步的方针，是促进我国的社会主义文化繁荣的方针。艺术上不同的形式和风格可以自由发展，科学上不同的学派可以自由争论。利用行政力量，强制推行一种风格，一种学派，禁止另一种风格，另一种学派，我们认为会有害于艺术和科学的发展。艺术和科学中的是非问题，应当通过艺术界科学界的自由讨论去解决，通过艺术和科学的实践去解决，而不应当采取简单的方法去解决。

School, Art, Flowers, Fashion

„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.“

— Mao Zedong Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 1893 - 1976

" 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。

People, World, Disease, Idea

„In the ideological field, the question of who will win in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has not been really settled yet. We still have to wage a protracted struggle against bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology. It is wrong not to understand this and to give up ideological struggle. All erroneous ideas, all poisonous weeds, all ghosts and monsters, must be subjected to criticism; in no circumstance should they be allowed to spread unchecked. However, the criticism should be fully reasoned, analytical and convincing, and not rough, bureaucratic, metaphysical or dogmatic.“

— Mao Zedong Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 1893 - 1976

Speech at the Chinese Communist Party’s National Conference on Propaganda Work (March 12, 1957), 1st pocket edition, pp. 26-27
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

Idea, Understanding, Question

„Anyone in a position of leadership should be using that position to build trust in vaccines“

— Michelle Wu City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts 1985

4 August 2021 criticism quoted in The Hill https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566367-boston-mayor-compares-vaccine-passports-to-documentation-required-during of Kim Janey after Janey compared vaccine passports to slave papers
2021

„Avian flu, which has already killed 50 people, is only a mutation away from being transmissible from person to person. We have no immunity, no vaccines, and no cure. It is imperative that we strengthen our domestic vaccine supply, expand legal protections, encourage collaboration between the public and private sectors, and advance research and development. These initiatives will help protect us from a deadly viral outbreak that experts warn could come to our shores any day.“

— Bill Frist physician, businessman, and politician 1952

On the potential for a flu pandemic.
The Associated Press, April 12, 2005.

People, Help, Personality

„It is a man’s world and to fight back we have to develop a very thick skin. Take criticism very constructively, but at the same time fight back and retain your position.“

— Tina Dabi Indian Administrative Service Officer 1993

Quoted in Hindustan times https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/it-s-a-man-s-world-but-fight-back-upsc-topper-tina-dabi-tells-students/story-L4OLccQbYi5tdbM8GNMECO.html

Time, World, Fight

„It is the vaccine or vaccines that will win the war against COVID-19, not the government or mythological beliefs.“

— P. Chidambaram Indian politician 1945

Source: Jan 2021 https://twitter.com/PChidambaram_IN/status/1350733987640086530

War

„The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.“

— Salman Rushdie British Indian novelist and essayist 1947

Idea, Freedom

„The new attitude of the critic toward the artist has been rationalized for me by a leading European art historian who is also an influential critic of current art. It is based on a theory of division of labor in making art history. The historian, he contends, knows art history and, in fact, creates it; the artist knows only how to do things. Left to himself, the artist is almost certain to do the wrong thing — to deviate from the line of art history and thus to plunge into oblivion. The critic's role is to steer him in the proper direction and advise changes in his technique and subject matter that will coordinate his efforts with the forces of development. Better still, critics should formulate historically valid projects for artists to carry out. That not all critics have the same expectations of the future of art does not, I realize, weaken the cogency of my colleague's argument. The surviving artist would be one who has been lucky enough to pick the winning critic. My own view that art should be left to artists seemed to my mentor both out-of-date and irresponsible.“

— Harold Rosenberg American writer and art critic 1906 - 1978

Source: Art on the Edge, (1975), p. 249, "Thoughts in Off-Season"

Art, History, Effort, Change

„A vaccine for the coronavirus is still being developed and that the main treatment right now is supportive care.“

— Chen Shih-chung politician

Chen Shih-chung (2020) cited in " Taiwan coronavirus patients in good condition: CDC https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3869327" on Taiwan News, 2 February 2020.

Support

„It is in the nature of science that once a position becomes orthodox it should be suggested to criticism…. It does not follow that, because a position is orthodox, it is wrong.“

— John Maynard Smith British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist 1920 - 2004

(1976) Group Selection. Quarterly Review of Biology 51, 277-283.

Nature, Science

„Making critical thinking a national educational norm is the cognitive vaccine America needs to have a fighting chance of maintaining sufficient sanity. Good thinking prevents and alleviates bad thinking.“

— Guy P. Harrison American skeptic author 1963

Education, Fight, Chance, Thinking

„So we've got to figure out what the ecosystem is going to be, to develop vaccines that are not going to make money.“

— Peter Hotez American academic 1958

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Hearing on Coronavirus (March 5, 2020)

Money, Making love

„In the 1970's and 1980's vaccines became, one might say, victims of their own success. They had been so effective in preventing infectious diseases that the public became much less alarmed at the threat of those diseases, and much more concerned with the risk of injury from the vaccines themselves.“

— Antonin Scalia former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1936 - 2016

Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, 562 U.S. 223 (2011), 226.
2010s

Disease, Success

„Oh well, memories,” said I. “Yes, even remembering in itself is sad, yet how much more its object! Don’t let yourself in for things like that, it’s not for you and it’s not for me. It only weakens one’s present position without strengthening the former one — nothing is more obvious — quite apart from the fact that the former one doesn’t need strengthening.“

— Franz Kafka author 1883 - 1924

"Description of a Struggle"
The Complete Stories (1971)

Sadness, Memory

„From the changes that have occurred in the world, there must be drawn correct, revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist conclusions: there must be drawn such conclusions as not to create reformist and pacifist illusions and weaken the struggle against imperialism, but to strengthen ever more this just struggle: there must be drawn such conclusions as not to alienate the peoples from the cause of revolution, but bring them ever closer to it, not divert them from the struggle for their national liberation, but raise this struggle to an ever higher level.“

— Enver Hoxha the Communist leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Alb… 1908 - 1985

Speeches, 20th Party Anniversary Address

People, World, Change

„Independent character is like independent thought, it cannot be developed without criticism.“

— Leon Trotsky, book The Revolution Betrayed

Source: The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Ch. 7

„[W]e took this on... with the idea of pioneering not only interest in science, but also a new business model, and the business model part, we haven't quite figured out yet, because we're trying to make... vaccines for diseases no one else will make.“

— Peter Hotez American academic 1958

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Hearing on Coronavirus (March 5, 2020)

Business, Idea, Science, Making love

„There may be a hundred stances and sword positions, but you win with just one.“

— Yagyū Munenori samurai and daimyo of the early Edo period 1571 - 1646

A Hereditary Book on the Art of War (1632)

„For those that were originally vaccinated with vaccine A and then receive a vaccine B booster, the results are better than those vaccinated under an 'AA' or 'BB' plan.“

— Gao Fu Chinese virologist and immunologist 1961

Source: Gao Fu (2022) cited in " Threat of omicron keeps China walled off, as scientists search for more-effective vaccines https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/10/omicron-china-covid-vaccines/" on The Washington Post, 10 January 2022.

Mao Zedong179

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