Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

Singaporean Politician

Filter quotes by topic

AllSingaporeIfsPeopleInspiringThinkingBelieveGovernmentKnowsMenWayYearsLeaderNeedsDemocracyDoneEndsHas BeensLawMadeMind

Famous Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

“It’s irrelevant to me what young Singaporeans think of me. What they think of me after I’m dead and gone in one generation will be determined by researchers who do PhDs on me, right? So there will be a lot of revisionism. As people revised Stalin, Brezhnev and one day now Yeltsin, and later on Putin. I’ve lived long enough to know that you may be idealised in life and reviled after you’re dead.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMayLongEnoughYoungGoneGenerationsOne DayDeterminedIrrelevantPutinResearchersThink Of MeHard TruthsPhdsRevisionismBrezhnev
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“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.”

IfsKnowsWayKindHas BeensMatterFactsUseProblemTodayToo MuchDogMinesApproachAdultsTrainSticksPopulationEducatedLiftsSelectMatter Of Fact
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“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.”

PeopleKnowsMenYearsBelieveHas BeensDifferentEarthFacesReadingRaceMillionsEvolutionEqualAskingClimateArguingConclusionObservationSoilIsolatedUnlikelySingapore
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who's very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that's a very tricky business. We've got to know his background... I'm saying these things because they are real, and if I don't think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn't think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy.”

IfsThinkingKnowsRealTodayReligiousGunMy FamilyMachinesTragedyBackgroundsInstanceMinistersTiesPrimeOfficersUnitsPrime MinisterTrickyMachine GunsMalaysiaFamily Ties
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“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... my asset values will disappear, my apartments will be worth a fraction of what they were, my ministers' jobs will be in peril, their security will be at risk and their women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers.”

PeopleKnowsCountryGovernmentTogetherJobsValuesRiskSecurityWorkersDisappearCuresAlternativesAssetsApartmentPerilFractionsDoseMaidsSingaporeIncompetentTogether AgainHumpty Dumpty
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“They say people can think for themselves? Do you honestly believe that the chap who can’t pass primary six knows the consequence of his choice when he answers a question viscerally, on language, culture and religion? But we knew the consequences. We would starve, we would have race riots. We would disintegrate.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveChoicesCultureLanguageAnswersRaceSixConsequenceHonestlyPrimariesRiotChapsLanguage CultureCulture And ReligionRace Riots
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image