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

Lee Kuan Yew

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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
Purpose
Everything
Right
Honourable
Saying

More quotes by Lee Kuan Yew

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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
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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
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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
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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
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Usually I read biographies of interesting people. I am not attracted to novels - make-believe, or recreations of what people think life should be.
Lee Kuan Yew
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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.
Lee Kuan Yew
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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
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I wish I can meet my wife in the hereafter, but I don't think I will. I just cease to exist just as she has ceased to exist.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I don't believe in love at first sight. I think it's a grave mistake.
Lee Kuan Yew
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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
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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.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.
Lee Kuan Yew
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We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.
Lee Kuan Yew
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If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.
Lee Kuan Yew
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Most libels, and I have taken about 30 actions, take place at election time. It has not stuck because I am prepared to go before a court, stand in the witness box and face the most aggressive of lawyers who can cross-examine me on my personal history.
Lee Kuan Yew
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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
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If you are a troublemaker, it’s our job to politically destroy you. Put it this way. As long as JB Jeyaretnam stands for what he stands for – a thoroughly destructive force – we will knock him. Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac.
Lee Kuan Yew
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I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course.
Lee Kuan Yew
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At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.
Lee Kuan Yew
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One-man-one-vote is a most difficult form of government.. Results can be erratic.
Lee Kuan Yew