一切实际工作者必须向下作调查。对于只懂得理论不懂得实际情况的人，这种调查工作尤有必要，否则他们就不能将理论和实际相联系。“没有调查就没有发言权”，这句话，虽然曾经被人讥为“狭隘经验论”的，我却至今不悔；不但不悔，我仍然坚持没有调查是不可能有发言权的。有许多人，“下车伊始”，就哇喇哇喇地发议论，提意见，这也批评，那也指责，其实这种人十个有十个要失败。因为这种议论或批评，没有经过周密调查，不过是无知妄说。我们党吃所谓“钦差大臣”的亏，是不可胜数的。而这种“钦差大臣”则是满天飞，几乎到处都有。斯大林的话说得对：“理论若不和革命实践联系起来，就会变成无对象的理论。”当然又是他的话对：“实践若不以革命理论为指南，就会变成盲目的实践。”除了盲目的、无前途的、无远见的实际家，是不能叫做“狭隘经验论”的。
——《“农村调查”的序言和跋》（一九四一年三月、四月），《毛泽东选集》第三卷第七九一页
Everyone engaged in practical work must investigate conditions at the lower levels. Such investigation is especially necessary for those who know theory but do not know the actual conditions, for otherwise they will not be able to link theory with practice. Although my assertion, "No investigation no right to speak", has been ridiculed as "narrow empiricism", to this day I do not regret having made it; far from regretting it, I still insist that without investigation there cannot possibly be any right to speak. There are many people who "the moment they alight from the official carriage" make a hullabaloo, spout opinions, criticize this and condemn that; but, in fact, ten out of ten of them will meet with failure. For such views or criticisms, which are not based on thorough investigation, are nothing but ignorant twaddle. Countless times our Party suffered at the hands of these "imperial envoys", who rushed here, there and everywhere. Stalin rightly says that "theory becomes purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practice". And he rightly adds that "practice gropes in the dark if its path is not illumined by revolutionary theory". Nobody should be labelled a "narrow empiricist" except the "practical man" who gropes in the dark and lacks perspective and foresight.
― "Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys" (March and April 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 13.*

这种态度，就是实事求是的态度。“实事”就是客观存在着的一切事物，“是”就是客观事物的内部联系，即规律性，“求”就是我们去研究。我们要从国内外、省内外、县内外、区内外的实际情况出发，从其中引出其固有的而不是臆造的规律性，即找出周围事变的内部联系，作为我们行动的向导。而要这样做，就须不凭主观想像，不凭一时的热情，不凭死的书本，而凭客观存在的事实，详细地占有材料，在马克思列宁主义一般原理的指导下，从这些材料中引出正确的结论。
——《改造我们的学习》（一九四一年五月）《毛泽东选集》第三卷第八零一页
To take such an attitude is to seek truth from facts. "Facts" are all the things that exist objectively, "truth" means their internal relations, that is, the laws governing them, and "to seek" means to study. We should proceed from the actual conditions inside and outside the country, the province, county or district, and derive from them, as our guide to action, laws which are inherent in them and not imaginary, that is, we should find the internal relations of the events occurring around us. And in order to do that we must rely not on subjective imagination, not on momentary enthusiasm, not on lifeless books, but on facts that exist objectively; we must appropriate the material in detail and, guided by the general principles of Marxism-Leninism, draw correct conclusions from it.
― "Reform Our Study" (May 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 22-23.

“闭塞眼睛捉麻雀”，“瞎子摸鱼”，粗枝大叶，夸夸其谈，满足于一知半解，这种极坏的作风，这种完全违反马克思列宁主义基本精神的作风，还在我党许多同志中继续存在着。马克思、恩格斯、列宁、斯大林教导我们认真地研究情况，从客观的真实的情况出发，而不是从主观的愿望出发；我们的许多同志却直接违反这一真理。
——《改造我们的学习》（一九四一年五月），《毛泽东选集》第三卷第七九七页
To behave like "a blindfolded man catching sparrows", or "a blind man groping for fish", to be crude and careless, to indulge in verbiage, to rest content with a smattering of knowledge - such is the extremely bad style of work that still exists among many comrades in our Party, a style utterly opposed to the fundamental spirit of Marxism-Leninism. Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin have taught us that it is necessary to study conditions conscientiously and to proceed from objective reality and not from subjective wishes; but many of our comrades act in direct violation of this truth.
― Ibid. p. 18.

你对于那个问题不能解决么？那末，你就去调查那个问题的现状和它的历史吧！你完完全全调查明白了，你对那个问题就有解决的办法了。一切结论产生于调查情况的末尾，而不是在它的先头。只有蠢人，才是他一个人，或者邀集一堆人，不作调查，而只是冥思苦索地“想办法”，“打主意”。须知这是一定不能想出什么好办法，打出什么好主意的。
——《反对本本主义》（一九三零年五月），人民出版社版第二页
You can't solve a problem? Well, get down and investigate the present facts and its past history! When you have investigated the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it. Conclusions invariably come after investigation, and not before. Only a blockhead cudgels his brains on his own, or together with a group, to "find a solution" or "evolve an idea" without making any investigation. It must be stressed that this cannot possibly lead to any effective solution or any good idea.
― "Oppose Book Worship" (May 1930), 1st pocket ed., p. 2.

调查就象“十月怀胎”，解决问题就象“一朝分娩”。调查就是解决问题。
——《反对本本主义》（一九三零年五月），人民出版社版第三页
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.
― Ibid., p. 3.

应用马克思列宁主义的理论和方法，对周围环境作系统的周密的调查和研究。不是单凭热情去工作，而是如同斯大林所说的那样：把革命气概和实际精神结合起来。
——《改造我们的学习》（一九四一年五月），《毛泽东选集》第三卷第八零一页
[With the Marxist-Leninist attitude,] a person applies the theory and method of Marxism-Leninism to the systematic and thorough investigation and study of the environment. He does not work by enthusiasm alone but, as Stalin says, combines revolutionary sweep with practicalness.
― "Reform Our Study" (May 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 22.

要了解情况，唯一的方法是向社会作调查，调查社会各阶级的生动情况。对于担负指导工作的人来说，有计划地抓住几个城市、几个乡村，用马克思主义的基本观点，即阶级分析的方法，作几次周密的调查，乃是了解情况的最基本的方法。
——《“农村调查”的序言和跋》（一九四一年三月、四月），《毛泽东选集》第三卷第七八九页
The only way to know conditions is to make social investigations, to investigate the conditions of each social class in real life. For those charged with directing work, the basic method for knowing conditions is to concentrate on a few cities and villages according to a plan and, using the fundamental viewpoint of Marxism, i.e., the method of class analysis, make a number of thorough investigations.
― "Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys" (March and April 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 11.*

开调查会每次人不必多，三五个七八个人即够。必须给予时间，必须有调查纲目，还必须自己口问手写，并同到会人展开讨论。因此，没有满腔的热忱，没有眼睛向下的决心，没有求知的渴望，没有放下臭架子、甘当小学生的精神，是一定不能做，也一定做不好的。
——《“农村调查”的序言和跋》（一九四一年三月、四月），《毛泽东选集》第三卷第七九零页
A fact-finding meeting need not be large; from three to five or seven or eight people are enough. Ample time must be allowed and an outline for the investigation must be prepared; furthermore, one must personally ask questions, take notes and have discussions with those at the meeting. Therefore one certainly cannot make an investigation, or do it well, without zeal, a determination to direct one's eyes downward and a thirst for knowledge, and without shedding the ugly mantle of pretentiousness and becoming a willing pupil.
― Ibid., p. 12.

指挥员的正确的部署来源于正确的决心，正确的决心来源于正确的判断，正确的判断来源于周到的和必要的侦察，和对于各种侦察材料的联贯起来的思索。指挥员使用一切可能的和必要的侦察手段，将侦察得来的敌方情况的各种材料加以去粗取精、去伪存真、由此及彼、由表及里的思索，然后将自己方面的情况加上去，研究双方的对比和相互的关系，因而构成判断，定下决心，作出计划，——这是军事家在作出每一个战略、战役或战斗的计划之前的一个整个的认识情况的过程。
——《中国革命战争的战略问题》（一九三六年十二月），《毛泽东选集》第一卷第一七三页
A commander's correct dispositions stem from his correct decisions, his correct decisions stem from his correct judgements, and his correct judgements stem from a thorough and necessary reconnaissance and from pondering on and piecing together the data of various kinds gathered through reconnaissance. He applies all possible and necessary methods of reconnaissance, and ponders on the information gathered about the enemy's situation, discarding the dross and selecting the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true, proceeding from the one to the other and from the outside to the inside; then, he takes the conditions on his own side into account, and makes a study of both sides and their interrelations, thereby forming his judgements, making up his mind and working out his plans. Such is the complete process of knowing a situation which a military man goes through before he formulates a strategic plan, a campaign plan or a battle plan.
― "Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War" (December 1936), Selected Works, Vol. I. p. 188.