Review: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung “Little Red Book”

Chairman Mao is a marmite figure in history. He is one of the core thinkers and philosophers in communism and ranks alongside Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin in being a core thinker. This book is a reproduction of the infamous ‘Little Red Book’ that almost every Chinese person possessed and treasured and indeed the book spread around the world and alongside texts such as the Bible, is one of the most widely read pieces of literature ever created. Therefore it is an influential book and it is essential to study it if you wish to have an understanding of the world. Since Mao’s death after such calamities as the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution that were really radical and sometimes brutal in the costs that ensued upon the masses, there was a general move away from Maoist thinking or Mao Zedong thought. Under Xi Jinping, the current leader of China, there has been a shift back towards Maoist policies for the CCP. Alos, Mao exported his ideas, often through this book, and they had global influence in left-wing movements and in counter culture movements eg. In the 1960s with hippies and rock and roll. Mao often championed the rights of minorities such as black people in America during the civil rights movement and the poverty stricken people in the Third World. Mao had a humble peasant upbringing but it is most certain that he had a gift for rhetoric and philosophy and writing. He was also a poet.

This book has some most amazing soundbites and after reading it you truly realise that it is a lifechanging book. A lot of the ideas are so simple and succinctly put that you can’t help but meditate upon them. They ring true. I equate this book to that of Roman Emperor, Marucs Aurelius’ Meditations. That had a profound effect on me  and similar to Aurelius, Mao has a knack of hitting home with his brief statements. I can fully see how powerful this book was and why it was so popular. It is indoctrination and I am a leftie but I don’t necessarily agree with all of Mao and his philosophy.

I’m going to end this book review with a series of quoted phrases from the text that stood out to me. It is well worth a read, ‘The Little Red Book’ if you haven’t already digested it.  

We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.

Every communist must grasp the truth; “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.’

The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them can wage it.

The people and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.

Political work is the lifeblood of all economic work. This is particularly trueat a time when the social and economic system is undergoing fundamental change.

The army must become one with the people so that they see it as their own army. Such an army will be invincible…

Anyone who sees only the bright side but not the difficulties cannot fight effectively for the accomplishment of the Party’s tasks.

We must learn to look at problems all-sidedly, seeing the reverse as well as the obverse side of things. In given conditions, a bad thing can lead to good results and a good thing to bad results.

What we need is an enthusiastic but calm state of mind and intense but orderly work.

Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it.

Communists should set an example in study’ at all times they should be pupil of the masses as well as their teachers.

Every communist working in the mass movements should be a friend of the masses and not a boss over them, an indefatigable teacher and not a bureaucratic politician.

We communists are like the seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them.

A communist must never be opinionated or domineering, thinking that he is good in everything while others are good in nothing; he must never shut himself up in his little room, or brag and boast and lord it over others.

Revolutionary culture is a powerful revolutionary weapon for the broad masses of the people. It prepares the ground ideologically before the revolution comes and is an important, indeed essential, fighting front in the general revolutionary front during the revolution.

Complacency is the enemy of study. We cannot really learn anything until we rid ourselves of complacency. Our attitude towards ourselves should be “to be insatiable in learning” and towards others “to be tireless in teaching”.