Lee Kuan Yew
Latecomers to industrial development have had to catch up by finding ways of closing the gap.
China itself is now in the process of sloughing off not only the communist system, but also those outdated parts of Confucianism that prevent the rapid acquisition of knowledge needed to adjust to new ways of life and work.
I can feel the gradual decline of energy and vitality. And I mean generally, every year, when you know you are not on the same level as last year. But that's life.
How do I comfort myself? Well, I say, 'Life is just like that.'
If you want to reach your goals and dreams, you cannot do it without disciplineCollection: Motivational
Having an education is one thing, being educated is another.Collection: Educated
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.Collection: Study
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.Collection: Dream
A leader without the vision, to strive to improve things, is no good. Then you will just stay put, you won't progress.Collection: Leadership
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.Collection: Country
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.Collection: Drinking
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.Collection: Heart
We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.Collection: Thinking
Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless.Collection: Singapore
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.Collection: Integrity
What I fear is complacency. When things always become better, people tend to want more for less work.Collection: Inspiring
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.Collection: Adventure
As you solve one set of problems, new ones appear. That is part of the nature of life.Collection: Problem
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.Collection: Country
The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.Collection: Advice
I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.Collection: Inspiring
If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.Collection: Inspiring
I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose.Collection: Purpose
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.Collection: Jobs
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.Collection: Inspiring
If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.Collection: Years
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.Collection: Inspiring
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.Collection: Believe
Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.Collection: Inspiring
One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be erratic.Collection: Inspiring
It is essential to rear a generation at the very top of society that has all the qualities needed to lead and give the people the inspiration and the drive to make it succeed. In short, the elite.. Every society tries to produce this type. The British have special schools for them: the gifted and talented are sent to Eton and Harrow.Collection: Inspiration
I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind - an inability to chart a course whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.Collection: Blow
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.Collection: Country
Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards.Collection: Inspiring
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.Collection: Men
I don't believe in love at first sight. I think it's a grave mistake.Collection: Inspiring
At the end of the day, what I cherish most are the human relationships. With the unfailing support of my wife and partner I have lived my life to the fullest. It is the friendships I made and the close family ties I nurtured that have provided me with that sense of satisfaction at a life well lived, and have made me what I am.Collection: Ties
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.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Inspiring
If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society…So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.Collection: Stupid
Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society.Collection: Hurt
We must encourage those who earn less than $200 per month and cannot afford to nurture and educate many children never to have more than two… We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic.Collection: Regret
I’m not interested in changing either my suit or my car or whatever with every change in fashion. That’s irrelevant. I don’t judge myself or my friends by their fashions. Of course, I don’t approve of people who are sloppy and unnecessarily shabby or dishevelled… But I’m not impressed by a US$5,000 or US$10,000 Armani suit.Collection: Fashion
Now if democracy will not work for the Russians, a white Christian people, can we assume that it will naturally work with Asians?Collection: Christian
But we either believe in democracy or we don't. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed. If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Country
Political reform need not go hand in hand with economic liberalization.. I hold unconventional views about this.. I do not believe if you are a libertarian, full of diverse opinions, full of competing ideas in the market place, full of sound and fury, therefore you will succeed.Collection: Believe
What is of consequence is I did my best.Collection: Consequence
I am ... a realist. The magnitude of what one terms license or civil liberties or personal freedom has got to be adjusted to the circumstances.Collection: Freedom