Many copies ended up being a few pages shorter. In 1971, Lin, rumored to be plotting against Mao, fled China and died when his airplane crashed in Mongolia. A Party decree required anyone who had the "Quotations" to rip out from the book's opening pages Lin's endorsement, in his reproduced calligraphy, and, where applicable, a preface he wrote in December 1966.

很多版本都缺少几页。1971年，被传阴谋反毛的林彪逃离中国，因飞机失事死于蒙古境内。一项党的命令要求所有人把《语录》扉页的林彪毛笔书法题词撕去，此外还有他在1966年12月写的序言。

The prose of the "Quotations" was prosaic — "The masses have a potentially inexhaustible enthusiasm for socialism," one typical excerpt begins — and at times baffling. It is hard to know what lesson even the most ardent Communist might have drawn from this: "One can get a grip on something only when it is grasped firmly, without the slightest slackening. Not to grasp firmly is not to grasp at all. Naturally, one cannot get a grip on something with an open hand. When the hand is clenched as if grasping something but is not clenched tightly, there is still no grip."

《语录》中有的句子很乏味——“群众中蕴藏了一种极大的社会主义的积极性”——其中典型的一段是这么开始的；有时也让人困惑。“什么东西只有抓得很紧，毫不放松，才能抓住。抓而不紧，等于不抓。伸着巴掌，当然什么也抓不住。就是把手握起来，但是不握紧，样子象抓，还是抓不住东西。”最热忱的共产党员能够从中学到什么东西不得而知。

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