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Lee Kuan Yew

81 quotes

• “If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew to critics who accused him of governing Singapore like a nanny state, From Third World to First, The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 Lee Kuan Yew. 2000)

• “If you can't think because you can't chew, try a banana”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Responding to a BBC reporter who suggested that Singapore's draconian laws (including the ban on chewing gum) could stifle the people's creativity (2000).

• “I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind - an inability to chart a course whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: SM Lee Kuan Yew Success Stories (2002)

• “He picked up from me a certain way of thinking, certain logic, certain cut of mind. He has got from his mother a facility with words, and a certain intuition. So please do give him some slack, if you find that he thinks slowly, and speaks even more slowly.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew on Lee Hsien Loong, The Straits Times (22 June 2004)

• “Political reform need not go hand in hand with economic liberalisation. I do not believe that if you are libertarian, full of diverse opinions, full of competing ideas in the market place, full of sound and fury, therefore you will succeed.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, The Straits Times (17 August 2004)

• “He took over, and he said: 'If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.'”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Recalling how former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dealt with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, The Straits Times, Aug 17, 2004

• “At the end of the day, we are so many digits in the machine. The point is – are these digits stronger than the competitors' digits?”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: MM Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore workers, History of Singapore (2005)

• “Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: MM Lee Kuan Yew, after 2006 Elections cited by The Washington Post

• “When I call a man openly, you're a liar, you're dishonest, and you do not dare to sue me, there's something basically wrong. And I will repeat it anywhere and you can't go and say, oh, I have apologised; let's move on. Can you commit a dishonourable -- maybe even one which is against the law -- an illegal act and say, let's move on because I've apologised? You may move on but you're going to move on out of politics in time.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: MM Lee Kuan Yew on James Gomez, Channelnewsasia (May 2006)

• “Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: MM Lee Kuan Yew on what would happen if a profligate opposition government touched Singapore's vast monetary reserves, "Lee Kuan Yew defends PAP's Political Dominance", Reuters (16 September 2006)

• “That was the year the British decided to get out and sell everything. So I immediately held an election. I knew the people will be dead scared. And I won my bet big-time.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On winning 88% of the votes in 1968 (actual share was 84.43%), The Straits Times, (7 March 2007)

• “You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... your asset values will disappear, your apartments will be worth a fraction of what they were, and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Justifying million-dollar pay hike for Singapore ministers (The Straits Times, 5 April 2007)

• “Singaporeans, if I can chose an analogy, we are the hard disk of a computer, the foreign talent are the megabytes you add to your storage capacity. So your computer never hangs because you got enormous storage capacity,”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On accepting foreign talent (The Straits Times, 22 April 2007)

• “When you're Singapore and your existence depends on performance — extraordinary performance, better than your competitors — when that performance disappears because the system on which it's been based becomes eroded, then you've lost everything... I try to tell the younger generation that and they say the old man is playing the same record, we've heard it all before. I happen to know how we got here and I know how we can unscramble it.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On one election result in Singapore, The Straits Times (26 June 2008), and "Opposition would ruin Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew" in AFP report at Google News (26 June 2008)

• “There is a conspiracy to do us in. Why?... They see us as a threat to the rest of Singapore.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On why Human Rights Groups criticise Singapore's governance Agence France-Presse, (12 July 2008)

• “India is an intrinsic part of this unfolding new world order. India can no longer be dismissed as a “wounded civilisation”, in the hurtful phrase of a westernised non resident Indian author (V.S. Naipaul).”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew - At the 37th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture on 21st Nov 2005 in New Delhi, quoted at

• “India is a creation of the British Raj and the railway system it built, and therefore it has its limitations.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lew Kuan Yew answers people in India during the South Asian Diaspora Convention (2011).

• “What if Mr Mah is unable to defend himself, he deserves to lose? No country in the world has given its citizens an asset as valuable as what we've given every family here. And if you say that policy is at fault, you must be daft.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: when asked about a Straits Times report that cited keen opposition interest in contesting Tampines GRC, which National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan helms, so that they can raise the affordability of public housing a…

• “The final verdict will not be in the obituaries. The final verdict will be when the PhD students dig out the archives, read my old papers, assess what my enemies have said, sift the evidence and seek the truth. I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Interview with The New York Times (September 2010)

• “I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not want to offend the Muslim community... I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, inter-marriages and so on – than Muslims... I would say, today, we can integrate all religions and races, except Islam.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: from his book Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going (Asia One, 8 March 2011)

• “Hard Truths was a book based on 32 hours of interviews over a period of two years. I made this one comment on the Muslims integrating with other communities probably two or three years ago. Ministers and MPs, both Malay and non-Malay, have since told me that Singapore Malays have indeed made special efforts to integrate with the other communities, especially since 9/11, and that my call is out of date. I stand corrected. I hope that this trend will continue in the future.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: statement correcting previous commentsed on how well-integrated Malay-Muslims are in Singapore (Asia One, 8 March 2011)

• “If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: warning voters in Aljunied GRC on the consequence of voting for the alternative Workers' Party, which eventually defeated the PAP. Yahoo News (30 April 2011)

• “At the end of the day, if you are in Aljunied, ask yourself: Do you want one MP, one Non-Constituency MP, one celebrity who has been away 30 years, and two unknowns to look after you? Or would you prefer me and my hand-picked colleagues?”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Comments about the alternative Workers' Party candidates contesting in the Aljunied GRC for General Elections 2011, Yahoo News (30 April 2011)

• “I’m dead by then. There’ll be different voices, different standpoints, but I stand by my record. I did some sharp and hard things to get things right. Maybe some people disapproved of it. Too harsh, but a lot was at stake and I wanted the place to succeed, that’s all. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On how history will assess him, in Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going (2011)

• “But we either believe in democracy or we don't. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed... If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought, and no excuse, whether of security, should allow a government to be deterred from doing what it knows to be right, and what it must know to be right...”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates (27 April 1955)

• “Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates (4 October 1956)

• “Let us get down to fundamentals. Is this an open, or is this a closed society? Is it a society where men can preach ideas - novel, unorthodox, heresies, to established churches and established governments - where there is a constant contest for men's hearts and minds on the basis of what is right, of what is just, of what is in the national interests, or is it a closed society where the mass media - the newspapers, the journals, publications, TV, radio - either bound by sound or by sight, or both sound and sight, men's minds are fed with a constant drone of sycophantic support for a particular orthodox political philosophy? I am talking of the principle of the open society, the open debate, ideas, not intimidation, persuasion not coercion...”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew, Before Singapore's independence, Malaysian Parliamentary Debates (18 December 1964)

• “Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company? If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language in Malaysia). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then? Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lee Kuan Yew speaking in the Parliament of Malaysia (1965)

• “One of the crucial yardsticks by which we shall have to judge the results of the new abortion law combined with the voluntary sterilisation law will be whether it tends to raise or lower the total quality of our population. We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two. Intelligent application of these laws can help reduce the distortion that has already set in. Until the less educated themselves are convinced and realise that they should concentrate their limited resources on one or two to give their children the maximum chance to climb up the educational ladder, their children will always be at the bottom of the economic scale. It is unlikely that the results will be discernible before five years. Nor will the effect be felt before fifteen to twenty years. But we will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Abortion Bill (29 December 1969). As reported from Select Committee, Singapore Parliament Reports

• “Let me give you an example that encapsulates the whole difference between America and Singapore. America has a vicious drug problem. How does it solve it? It goes around the world helping other anti-narcotic agencies to try and stop the suppliers... Singapore does not have that option. What we can do is to pass a law which says that any customs officer or policeman who sees anybody in Singapore behaving suspiciously... can require that man to have his urine tested. If the sample is found to contain drugs, the man immediately goes for treatment. In America if you did that it would be an invasion of the individual's rights and you would be sued.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But if you are a troublemaker... it's our job to politically destroy you. Put it this way. As long as JB Jeyaretnam [Workers' Party leader] stands for what he stands for -- a thoroughly destructive force for me -- we will knock him. There are two ways of playing this. One, a you attack the policies; two, you attack the system. Jeyaretnam was attacking the system, he brought the Chief Justice into it. If I want to fix you, do I need the Chief Justice to fix you? Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac. That's the way I had to survive in the past. That's the way the communists tackled me. He brought the Chief Justice into the political arena.”

  Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: SM Lee Kuan Yew The Man & His Ideas (1997)