• Twenty-five "What-To-Do"s
  Finding Answers in Quotations from Chairman Mao
• What to do when you hear reactionary statements?
• p. 10: It is up to us to organize the people. As for the reactionaries in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them. Everything reactionary is the same; if you don't hit it, it won't fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.
  
  "The Situation and Our Policy After the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan" (August 13, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 19
  
  p. 14: We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.
  
  "Interview with Three Correspondents from the Central News Agency, the Sao Tang Pao and the Hsin Min Pao" (September 16, 1939), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 272
• What to do when you can't grasp the main issues in work?
• p. 97: Learn to "play the piano." In playing the piano all ten fingers are in motion; it won't do to move some fingers only and not others. But if all ten fingers press down at once, there is no melody. To produce good music, the ten fingers should move rhythmically and in co-ordination. A Party committee should keep a firm grasp on its central task and at the same time, around the central task, it should unfold the work in other fields. At present, we have to take care of many fields; we must look after the work in all the areas, armed units and departments, and not give all our attention to a few problems, to the exclusion of others. Wherever there is a problem, we must put our finger on it, and this is a method we must master. Some play the piano well and some badly, and there is a great difference in the melodies they produce. Members of Party committees must learn to "play the piano" well.
  
  "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 379
• What to do when you encounter arduous and hard work?
• p. 101: Guard against arrogance. For anyone in a leading position, this is a matter of principle and an important condition for maintaining unity. Even those who have made no serious mistakes and have achieved very great success in their work should not be arrogant.
  
  "Methods of Work of Party Committees" (March 13, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 380
  
  p. 229: We must not become complacent over any success. We should check our complacency and constantly criticize our shortcomings, just as we should wash our faces or sweep the floor every day to remove the dirt and keep them clean.
  
  "Get Organized!" (November 29, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 160
• What to do when you have criticisms or are disgruntled with decisions made by superiors?
• p. 148: Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people. Every word, every act and every policy must conform to the people's interest, and if mistakes occur, they must be corrected - that is what being responsible to the people means.
  
  "The Situation and Our Policy After the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan" (August 13, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 16
  
  p. 228: If we have shortcomings, we are not afraid to have them pointed out and criticized, because we serve the people. Anyone, no matter who, may point out our shortcomings. If what he proposes will benefit the people, we will act upon it.
  
  "Serve the People" (September 8, 1944), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 227
• What to do when your living conditions are not as you would like them, or are unfamiliar?
• p. 160: We must see to it that all our cadres and all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a large socialist country but an economically backward and poor one, and that this is a very great contradiction. To make China rich and strong needs several decades of intense effort, which will include, among other things, the effort to practise strict economy and combat waste, i.e., the policy of building up our country through diligence and frugality.
  
  "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" (February 27, 1957), 1st pocket ed., p. 71
  
  p. 210: Pleasure-seeking. In the Red Army there are also quite a few people whose individualism finds expression in pleasure-seeking. They always hope that their unit will march into big cities. They want to go there not to work but to enjoy themselves. The last thing they want is to work in the Red areas where life is hard.
  
  "On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party" (December 1929), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 113
• What to do when [you encounter] comrades who don't pay attention to study, or fail to relate theory to practice?
• p. 269: Some people have read a few Marxist books and think themselves quite learned, but what they have read has not penetrated, has not struck root in their minds, so that they do not know how to use it and their class feelings remain as of old. Others are very conceited and having learned some book-phrases, they think themselves terrific and are very cocky; but whenever a storm blows up, they take a stand very different from that of the workers and the great majority of the peasants. They waver while the latter stand firm, they equivocate while the latter are forthright.
  
  "Speech at the Chinese Communist Party's National Conference on Propaganda Work" (March 12, 1957), 1st pocket ed., pp. 7-8.

Living by the Book: Ask Chairman Mao for the Answers

Finding Answers in Quotations from Chairman Mao


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