Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

I believe in trying to get a balance between individual freedom on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.

The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy.

An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.

If, in the name of liberty, we allow individuals to act in a way that damages the wellbeing of the whole, it will inevitably mean the breakdown of mutuality, thereby changing the very nature of our society.

If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.

It is the Band which unites the Interests of Individuals; it secures to them their respective Rights, and preserves them from Injuries; it is the Source of numberless Blessings, which are interrupted, or wholly vanish, the Moment it is disturbed.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.

No nation can be free unless it is strong enough and active enough to control, whenever necessary, every private individual or group whose action affects the general welfare

The most desirable state of mankind is that which maintains general security with the smallest encroachment upon individual independence.

A good society is characterised not just by liberty but by mutual respect and responsibility. When this breaks down it takes a lot more than police officers to put things right.

People must have freedom and at the same time they must have security. They must not be using freedom to fight with each other. When they have security of the mind, their fears will subside, and their mistrust of others will also decline. There will be no need to worry that somebody will be looking at you with jealousy. They won't have to worry that someone will report some lies to their superiors and get them into trouble. This fear of being unjustly punished would disappear and I believe confidence and trust will mount and people will have more love and respect towards one another.

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

One reason why the progressive state is 'cheerful' is that social conflict is diminished by it.

As human beings, we are always torn between individual freedom and the ability of choose our actions, and the need for at least enough social structure so that anarchy, chaos, and warlordery - or the war of all against all - can be avoided.

All society is held together by nonviolence even as the earth is held in her position by gravitation.

The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.

What's important is the tolerance. If people are not beating other people up, or shooting them for being different, then that's progress. Even if the ideas that go through their head are fodder for novelists.

Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?

The good society is marked by a high degree of order, justice, and freedom. Among these, order has primacy: for justice cannot be enforced until a tolerable civil social order is attained, nor can freedom be anything better than violence until order gives us laws.

If any country were indeed filled with men, each thus diligently discharging the duties of his own station without breaking in upon the rights of others, but on the contrary endeavoring, so far as he might be able, to forward their views and promote their happiness, all would be active and harmonious in the goodly frame of human society.

Without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony.

We can have peace and brotherly love by accepting our responsibility to preserve freedom.

People had been working for so many years to make the world a safe organized place. Nobody realized how boring it would become.

Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

Liberty begets license.