Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own

I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever.

Revolutionary war is an antitoxin which not only eliminates the enemy's poison but also purges us of our own filth.

In the struggle to defend the legacy of Leninism . . . [Stalin] proved himself to be an outstanding Marxist-Leninist fighter. . . . Stalin's works should, as before, be seriously studied . . . [to] see what is correct and what is not.

Poem for Liu Ya-tzu I cannot forget how in Canton we drank tea and in Chungking went over our poems when leaves were yellowing. Thirty-one years ago and now we come back at last to the ancient capital Peking. In this season of falling flowers I read your beautiful poems. Be careful not to be torn inside. Open your vision to the world. Don't say that waters of Kumming Lake are too shallow. We can watch fish better here than in the Fuchun River in the south.

Morality begins at the point of a gun.

People say that poverty is bad, but in fact poverty is good. The poorer people are, the more revolutionary they are. It is dreadful to imagine a time when everyone will be rich... From a surplus of calories people will have two heads and four legs.