War & Peace Quote by Mao Tse-Tung

Cold-blooded confidence disguised as pragmatism: Mao’s line is a manual for winning while keeping your own troops psychologically intact. “Despise” works at the level of ideology and morale. It shrinks the enemy into something historically doomed, a temporary obstruction on the road to victory. That strategic contempt is not a private emotion; it’s an instrument. If your movement believes the opponent is fundamentally illegitimate, decadent, or out of step with history, sacrifice becomes easier to justify and internal doubt gets framed as weakness.

The second clause tightens the screw. “Take him seriously tactically” is Mao’s warning against the most common revolutionary delusion: confusing moral certainty with operational superiority. You can believe the enemy’s cause is rotten and still recognize his guns, logistics, spies, and alliances are very real. In Mao’s world, where a guerrilla force faced better-equipped armies, tactical seriousness meant discipline, patience, and attention to detail: terrain, timing, intelligence, and the ability to retreat without turning retreat into collapse.

The subtext is also about managing contradictions inside a movement. Strategic despising polices the narrative; tactical seriousness polices behavior. Together they prevent two failures: paralysis (if the enemy is feared as invincible) and recklessness (if the enemy is dismissed as a paper tiger). Historically, this sits in Mao’s broader talent for turning mindset into doctrine, where psychological posture is treated as a battlefield asset as concrete as ammunition.