Critique
on the Article
"Never Walk, Never Fall" [I]
(24 September 1962)

Distribute to all comrades[2] for study. If one has made a mistake, as long as one earnestly corrects it, that will be fine.

Mao Zedong
24 September

[1]
This critique was written above the article "Never Walk, Never Fall," published in *China Youth Daily* on 22 September 1962. The author of the article was Yan Changgui, an editor at *Red Flag* magazine. The article stated that as long as one works, one may make mistakes and suffer setbacks; whoever fears making mistakes and suffering setbacks and therefore dares not work will never do good work. It is precisely through "a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit," by learning the lessons of mistakes and setbacks, that people become wiser. Some people think that by not doing any work they will not make mistakes, but they hardly realize that not doing any work is itself the greatest mistake.

[2]
Refers to the comrades then attending the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.