Lee Kuan Yew Quotes About Culture

Quotes about: Culture

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Believe, Thinking, Race

• I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Believe, Chinese, Different

  Debate on President's Address, Parliament of Singapore, March 01, 1985.

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