We no longer know what socialism is, or how to get there, and yet it remains the goal.

Source and credibility

Deng Xiaoping very probably did not say this. Wikiquote lists it as misattributed.

Source: First attributed to Deng by McKenzie Wark, who was actually paraphrasing a similar sentence by him from a talk with Alfonso Guerra in 1987… Read in full
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Deng Xiaoping

Democracy and dictatorship of the proletariat are two parts of the same antithesis, and proletarian democracy is far superior to its capitalist counterpart.

Interview with Oriana Fallaci (1980)

We hold that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, should be equal, and that international economic affairs should be jointly managed by all the countries of the world instead of being monopolized by the one or two superpowers.

Speech at the Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly (1974)

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Source, in full

First attributed to Deng by McKenzie Wark, who was actually paraphrasing a similar sentence by him from a talk with Alfonso Guerra in 1987: "Our basic goal — to build socialism — is correct, but we are still trying to figure out what socialism is and how to build it".

Notes from Wikiquote

About the impact of the French Revolution, actually said by Zhou Enlai THIS QUOTE IS HARDLY EVER ATTRIBUTED TO DENG XIAOPING -->

Topics

Socialism

More quotes by Deng Xiaoping

When our thousands of Chinese students abroad return home, you will see how China will transform itself.

It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

Hung Li China's Political Situation and the Power Struggle in Peking (1977)

A basic contradiction between socialism and the market economy does not exist.

If you open a window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.

The United States brags about its political system, but the [American] President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm and something else when he leaves.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Deng Xiaoping (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.