Quote

Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.

Lee Kuan Yew

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lee Kuan Yew
Age: 91 †
Born: 1923
Born: September 16
Died: 2015
Died: March 23
Autobiographer
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Singaporean Politician
Statesperson
Republic of Singapore
LKY
Harry Lee
MM Lee
Li Guangyao
Assume
Assuming
Please
Understand
Change
Young
Government
Singapore
People
Governments

More quotes by Lee Kuan Yew

Image
I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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
Image
Nine holes of golf will take you one-and-a-half, two hours. I run in 20 minutes, I feel better off. So the cost benefit made me drop golf.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
What are our priorities? First, the welfare, the survival of the people. Then, democratic norms and processes which from time to time we have to suspend.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
I have decided that we shall make and build and never give way.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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
Image
One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be erratic.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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
Image
I am not given to making sense out of life - or coming up with some grand narrative on it - other than to measure it by what you think you want to do in life. As for me, I have done what I had wanted to, to the best of my ability. I am satisfied.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God... So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God - nor deny that there could be one.
Lee Kuan Yew
Image
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
Image
I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that's the most unlikely thing ever to have been... But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I've come to.
Lee Kuan Yew