Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

Quotes about:

• If you want to reach your goals and dreams, you cannot do it without discipline

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Motivational, Dream, Goal

  114 Copy quote

• Having an education is one thing, being educated is another.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Educated, One Thing

  41 Copy quote

• If there was one formula for our success,it was that we were constantly studying how to make things work,or how to make them work better.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Study, Formulas, Ifs

  47 Copy quote

• You begin your journey not knowing where it will take you. You have plans, you have dreams, but every now and again you have to take uncharted roads, face impassable mountains, cross treacherous rivers, be blocked by landslides and earthquakes. That's the way my life has been.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Dream, Adversity, Journey

  82 Copy quote

• A leader without the vision, to strive to improve things, is no good. Then you will just stay put, you won't progress.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Leadership, Vision, Progress

  41 Copy quote

• I’m very determined. If I decide that something is worth doing, then I’ll put my heart and soul to it. The whole ground can be against me, but if I know it is right, I’ll do it.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Heart, Soul, Determined

  58 Copy quote

• With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Country, Honesty, Freedom

  "Democracy, Human Rights and the Realities". Speech in Tokyo, www.theguardian.com. November 20, 1992.

  57 Copy quote

• We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Thinking, People, Mind

  The Straits Times, April 20, 1987.

  23 Copy quote

• Life is not just eating, drinking, television and cinema...The human mind must be creative, must be self-generating ; it cannot depend on just gadgets to amuse itself.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Drinking, Self, Creative

  85 Copy quote

• 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

  Singapore, Always Believe, Ifs

  "The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew". Book by Lee Kuan Yew, 1998.

  33 Copy quote

• What I fear is complacency. When things always become better, people tend to want more for less work.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, People, Want

  28 Copy quote

• For the young, let me tell you the sky has turned brighter. There's a glorious rainbow that beckons those with the spirit of adventure. And there are rich findings at the end of the rainbow. To the young and to the not-so-old, I say, look at that horizon, follow that rainbow, go ride it.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Adventure, Sky, Rainbow

  "Picking up the gauntlet: Will Singapore survive Lee Kuan Yew?". Lee Kuan Yew's speech to the Singapore Press Club at Raffles Hotel, www.nas.gov.sg. June 7, 1996.

  40 Copy quote

• As you solve one set of problems, new ones appear. That is part of the nature of life.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Problem, Solve

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.135, Editions Didier Millet

  19 Copy quote

• The ideas of individual supremacy and the right of free expression, when carried to excess, have not worked. They have made it difficult to keep America society cohesive. Asia can see it is not working.. In America itself, there is widespread crime and violence, old people feel forgotten, families are falling apart. And the media attacks the integrity and character of your leaders with impunity, drags down all those in authority and blames everyone but itself.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Integrity, Fall, Character

  40 Copy quote

• I have no regrets. I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There's nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Country, Regret, Successful

  "PM Lee Hsien Loong 'Grieved Beyond Words' at Mr Lee Kuan Yew's Death" by Fiona Chan, www.straitstimes.com. March 23, 2015.

  66 Copy quote

• I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, Men, Leader

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.54, Editions Didier Millet

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspiring, People, Leader

  "Success Stories Lee Kuan Yew". DVD, documentary, 2002.

  30 Copy quote

• The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Advice, Challenges, Needs

  18 Copy quote

• If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Years, Students, Disorder

  The Straits Times, August 17, 2004.

  16 Copy quote

• I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Purpose

  "Transcript of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s interview with Seth Mydans of New York Times & Iht". Interview with Seth Mydans, www.pmo.gov.sg. September 1, 2010.

  41 Copy quote

• I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Thinking, People, Mind

  Straits Times, April 20, 1987.

  18 Copy quote

• I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Inspiring, Politically Correct

  Lee Kuan Yew (2013). “The Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew”, p.159, Editions Didier Millet

  18 Copy quote

• You’re talking about Rwanda or Bangladesh, or Cambodia, or the Philippines. They’ve got democracy, according to Freedom House. But have you got a civilised life to lead? People want economic development first and foremost. The leaders may talk something else. You take a poll of any people. What is it they want? The right to write an editorial as you like? They want homes, medicine, jobs, schools.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Jobs, School, Home

  10 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

• 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

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