Lee Kuan Yew Quotes - Page 2

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• I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I'm meaningless.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Thinking, Wind, Leader

  "The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew". Book by Lee Kuan Yew, www.aljazeera.com. 1997.

  13 Copy quote

• I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that's the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils... I didn't start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I've come to.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Believe, Reading, Men

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez, Sumiko Tan, 1997.

  40 Copy quote

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

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Thinking, Trying, Bananas

  "Singapore's Elder Statesman" by Peter Day, news.bbc.co.uk. July 05, 2000.

  33 Copy quote

• The human being is an unequal creature. That is a fact. And we start off with the proposition. All the great religions, all the great movements, all the great political ideology, say let us make the human being as equal as possible. In fact, he is not equal, never will be.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Political, Facts, Movement

  23 Copy quote

• I have decided that we shall make and build and never give way.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Giving, Way, Decided

  9 Copy quote

• I have been accused of many things in my life, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, Worst Enemy, Mind

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.157, Editions Didier Millet

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• I am not given to making sense out of life - or coming up with some grand narrative on it - other than to measure it by what you think you want to do in life. As for me, I have done what I had wanted to, to the best of my ability. I am satisfied.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Thinking, Done, Want

  "Choosing When To Go". www.lankaweb.com. December 12, 2016.

  14 Copy quote

• The Bell curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture. The whites score on average 100. Asians score more. The Bell curve authors put it at least 10 points higher. These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Reality, Frustration, Average

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Fook Kwang Han, Sumiko Tan, and Warren Fernandez, 1998.

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• The task of the leaders must be to provide or create for them a strong framework within which they can learn, work hard, be productive and be rewarded accordingly. And this is not easy to achieve.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Strong, Hard Work, Leader

  13 Copy quote

• Every person, genius or moron, has a right to reproduce himself.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, Genius, Moron

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.142, Editions Didier Millet

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• Mine is a very matter-of-fact approach to the problem. If you can select a population and they're educated and they're properly brought up, then you don't have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It's like with dogs. You train it in a proper way from small. It will know that it's got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Dog, Adults, Population

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Fook Kwang Han, Sumiko Tan, and Warren Fernandez, 1998.

  9 Copy quote

• Usually I read biographies of interesting people. I am not attracted to novels - make-believe, or recreations of what people think life should be.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Believe, Thinking, People

  "Choosing When To Go". www.lankaweb.com. December 12, 2016.

  13 Copy quote

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

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Government, People, Assuming

  "Singapore's Founding Father Lee Kuan Yew Critically Ill" by Anna Fifield, www.smh.com.au. March 19, 2015.

  39 Copy quote

• China can draw on a talent pool of 1.3 billion people, but the United States can draw on a talent pool of 7 billion and recombine them in a diverse culture that enhances creativity in a way that ethnic Han nationalism cannot.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Creativity, People, Culture

  5 Copy quote

• What are our priorities? First, the welfare, the survival of the people. Then, democratic norms and processes which from time to time we have to suspend.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  People, Priorities, Survival

  21 Copy quote

• There are some flaws in the assumptions made for democracy. It is assumed that all men and women are equal or should be equal. Hence, one-man-one-vote. But is equality realistic? If it is not, to insist on equality must lead to regression.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Men, Democracy, Regression

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.48, Editions Didier Millet

  13 Copy quote

• Freedom of the press, freedom of the news media, must be subordinated to the overriding needs of the integrity of Singapore, and to the primacy of purpose of an elected government.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, Integrity, Government

  Address To The General Assembly Of The International Press Institute At Helsinki Wednesday, June 9, 1971.

  20 Copy quote

• For reasons of sentiment, I would like part of my ashes to be mixed up with Mama's, and both her ashes and mine put side by side in the columbarium. We were joined in life and I would like our ashes to be joined after this life.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Ashes, Mama, Sides

  63 Copy quote

• Rest on laurels? I wish I could do that. No, you rest when you're dead

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Wish, Laurels

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.158, Editions Didier Millet

  5 Copy quote

• Three women were brought to the Singapore General Hospital, each in the same condition and needing a blood transfusion. The first, a Southeast Asian was given the transfusion but died a few hours later. The second, a South Asian was also given a transfusion but died a few days later. The third, an East Asian, was given a transfusion and survived. That is the X factor in development.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Blood, Development, Firsts

  "Lee Kuan Yew: Race, culture and genes". Artiicle by Michael D. Barr. Journal of Contemporary Asia 29(2):145-67, www.researchgate.net. January 1999.

  38 Copy quote

• We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Country, Religious, People

  "Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of modern Singapore, dies aged 91". Interview With Peter Lloyd, www.abc.net.au. March 23, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

• If you are a troublemaker, it’s our job to politically destroy you. Put it this way. As long as JB Jeyaretnam stands for what he stands for – a thoroughly destructive force – we will knock him. 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.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Jobs, Long, Way

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Fook Kwang Han, Sumiko Tan, and Warren Fernandez, 1998.

  7 Copy quote

• Nine holes of golf will take you one-and-a-half, two hours. I run in 20 minutes, I feel better off. So the cost benefit made me drop golf.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Running, Feel Better, Golf

  18 Copy quote

• I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that's the most unlikely thing ever to have been... But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I've come to.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Bullying, Reading, Believe

  "Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas". Book by Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan, 1998.

  11 Copy quote

• The same law applies to me. Nobody has sued me for libel because I do not defame my enemies.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Law, Enemy, Libel

  6 Copy quote

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