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.

Lee Kuan Yew

Categorized in : Ties Wife Support

If you want to reach your goals and dreams, you cannot do it without discipline

Lee Kuan Yew

goal dream motivational

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

adversity journey dream

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.

Lee Kuan Yew

determined soul heart

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

regret successful country

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.

Lee Kuan Yew

integrity character fall

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

honesty freedom country

As you solve one set of problems, new ones appear. That is part of the nature of life.

Lee Kuan Yew

solve problem

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.

Lee Kuan Yew

formulas study ifs

Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless.

Lee Kuan Yew

singapore always-believe ifs

For reasons of sentiment, I would like part of my ashes to be mixed up with Mama's, and both her ashes and mine put side by side in the columbarium. We were joined in life and I would like our ashes to be joined after this life.

Lee Kuan Yew

mama ashes sides

Having an education is one thing, being educated is another.

Lee Kuan Yew

one-thing educated

What I fear is complacency. When things always become better, people tend to want more for less work.

Lee Kuan Yew

want inspiring people

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.

Lee Kuan Yew

creative self drinking

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

rainbow sky adventure

A leader without the vision, to strive to improve things, is no good. Then you will just stay put, you won't progress.

Lee Kuan Yew

progress vision leadership

The task of the leaders must be to provide or create for them a strong framework within which they can learn, work hard, be productive and be rewarded accordingly. And this is not easy to achieve.

Lee Kuan Yew

hard-work strong leader

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 culture people

I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.

Lee Kuan Yew

politically-correct inspiring

Three women were brought to the Singapore General Hospital, each in the same condition and needing a blood transfusion. The first, a Southeast Asian was given the transfusion but died a few hours later. The second, a South Asian was also given a transfusion but died a few days later. The third, an East Asian, was given a transfusion and survived. That is the X factor in development.

Lee Kuan Yew

development blood firsts

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.

Lee Kuan Yew

reading men believe