Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

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Lee Kuan Yew

Profession : Statesman

Birth : September 16, 1923

I was a product of the times, the war, the occupation, the reoccupation, my 4 years in Britain, admiring but at the same time questioning whether they are able to do a better job than we can.

Lee Kuan Yew

A military presence does not need to be used to be useful.

Lee Kuan Yew

I'm reaching 87, trying to keep fit, presenting a vigorous figure, and it's an effort, and is it worth the effort? I laugh at myself trying to keep a bold front. It's become my habit. I just carry on.

Lee Kuan Yew

I knew that my niece was working nearby with some bank, so my wife rang up the mother and the mother called back to say that shes just called up to say she was alright.

Lee Kuan Yew

If you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel something is wrong, I will get up.

Lee Kuan Yew

In the West, especially after World War II, the government came to be seen as so successful that it could fulfill all the obligations that in less modern societies are fulfilled by the family.

Lee Kuan Yew

Prudence dictates that there should be a balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lee Kuan Yew

I support the view that free trade in goods and services is a win-win situation. I'm not so convinced that free flows of capital without restriction is a win-win situation.

Lee Kuan Yew

At the end of the day, is Singapore society better or worse off? That's the test.

Lee Kuan Yew

Those who believe that after I have left the government as prime minister, I will go into a permanent retirement, really should have their heads examined.

Lee Kuan Yew

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

Lee Kuan Yew

I am not interested in ratings by Freedom House or whatever.

Lee Kuan Yew

Latecomers to industrial development have had to catch up by finding ways of closing the gap.

Lee Kuan Yew

My children were educated in what were then Chinese schools, and they learned English as a subject. But they made up when they went to English-language universities. So they didn't lose out. They had a basic set of traditional Confucian values. Not my grandchildren.

Lee Kuan Yew

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and China are more likely to view each other as competitors if not adversaries. But the die has not been cast. The best possible outcome is a new understanding that when they cannot cooperate, they will coexist and allow all countries in the Pacific to grow and thrive.

Lee Kuan Yew

I had some very powerful minds working with me.

Lee Kuan Yew

All my life... I believed in Malaysian merger and unity of the two territories. You know that we, as a people, are connected by geography, economics, by ties of kinship.

Lee Kuan Yew

The First World became a popular phrase in about the 1970s and '80s. The World Bank then began categorizing countries in different categories, advanced to the least developed.

Lee Kuan Yew

The values that East Asian culture upholds, such as the primacy of group interests over individual interests, support the total group effort necessary to develop rapidly.

Lee Kuan Yew

America's greatest long-term influence on China comes from playing host to the thousands of students who come from China each year, some of the ablest Chinese scholars and scientists. They will be the most powerful agents for change in China.

Lee Kuan Yew