On 10 January, the work was re-issued to the delegates and sent to select units of the People's Liberation Army who received their advance copies for educating troops as well as for their comments.

(全世界无产者，联合起来！) in bold red letters, and endorsement leaves written by Lin Biao, Mao's chosen successor, that included three lines from the diary of revolutionary soldier Lei Feng who is considered a hero in China.

[citation needed] At the end of 1965, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party officially approved the book for publication by the People's Publishing House and for distribution within China by the Xinhua Bookstore.

The goal was for "ninety-nine percent (of the population of China to) read Chairman Mao's book", according to a catalogue of publication records of the People's Publishing House.

[3] On 12 February 1979, the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party ordered to stop publishing Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

On the last page, they listed the names of the publisher (PLA General Political Department) without an ISBN, the printer and distributor (both Xinhua Bookstore), and the publication year.

By May 1967, bookstores in 117 countries and territories around the world—including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Japan, the Soviet Union, West Germany, Italy, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Burma, Iran, various Arab and African nations and others—were distributing Mao's Quotations.

"[7][8] The book's popularity may be because it was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, to read, and to carry it at all times during the latter half of Mao's rule, especially during the Cultural Revolution.

[citation needed] Foreign press report called the work the "Little Red Book," reflecting its common small size and bright cover.

[13]: 49  After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the rise of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the importance of the book waned considerably, and the glorification of Mao's quotations was considered to be left deviationism and a cult of personality.

The quotations range in length from a sentence to a few short paragraphs, and borrow heavily from a group of about two dozen documents in the four volumes of Mao's Selected Works.