“The fundamental point of departure for literature and art is love, love of humanity.” Now love may serve as a point of departure, but there is a more basic one. Love as an idea is a product of objective practice. Fundamentally we do not start from ideas but from objective practice. Our writers and artists who come from the ranks of the intellectuals love the proletariat because society has made them feel that they and the proletariat share a common fate. We hate Japanese imperialism because Japanese imperialism oppresses us. There is absolutely no such thing in the world as love or hatred without reason or cause. As for the so-called love of humanity, there has been no such all-inclusive love since humanity was divided into classes. All the ruling classes of the past were fond of advocating it, and so were many so-called sages and wise men, but nobody has ever really practiced it, because it is impossible in class society. There will be genuine love of humanity — after classes are eliminated all over the world. Classes have split society into many antagonistic groupings; there will be love of all humanity when classes are eliminated, but not now. We cannot love enemies, we cannot love social evils; our aim is to destroy them.

Talks at the Yan’an Forum, Modern Chinese Literary Thought, Writings on Literature, 1893-1945; p.478

“人性论”。有没有人性这种东西？当然有的。但是只有具体的人性，没有抽象的人性。在阶级社会里就是只有带着阶级性的人性，而没有什么超阶级的人性。我们主张无产阶级的人性，人民大众的人性，而地主阶级资产阶级则主张地主阶级资产阶级的人性，不过他们口头上不这样说，却说成为唯一的人性。有些小资产阶级知识分子所鼓吹的人性，也是脱离人民大众或者反对人民大众的，他们的所谓人性实质上不过是资产阶级的个人主义，因此在他们眼中，无产阶级的人性就不合于人性。现在延安有些人们所主张的作为所谓文艺理论基础的“人性论”，就是这样讲，这是完全错误的。
　　“文艺的基本出发点是爱，是人类之爱。”爱可以是出发点，但是还有一个基本出发点。爱是观念的东西，是客观实践的产物。我们根本上不是从观念出发，而是从客观实践出发。我们的知识分子出身的文艺工作者爱无产阶级，是社会使他们感觉到和无产阶级有共同的命运的结果。我们恨日本帝国主义，是日本帝国主义压迫我们的结果。世上决没有无缘无故的爱，也没有无缘无故的恨。至于所谓“人类之爱”，自从人类分化成为阶级以后，就没有过这种统一的爱。过去的一切统治阶级喜欢提倡这个东西，许多所谓圣人贤人也喜欢提倡这个东西，但是无论谁都没有真正实行过，因为它在阶级社会里是不可能实行的。真正的人类之爱是会有的，那是在全世界消灭了阶级之后。阶级使社会分化为许多对立体，阶级消灭后，那时就有了整个的人类之爱，但是现在还没有。我们不能爱敌人，不能爱社会的丑恶现象，我们的目的是消灭这些东西。这是人们的常识，难道我们的文艺工作者还有不懂得的吗？