Lee Kuan Yew Quotes

The generation which lived through the Second World War is disappearing. Post-war generations see Europe's great achievements - liberty, peace and prosperity - as a given.

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress.

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

We need government to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

What is a government supposed to do for its people? To improve the standard of living, to help them get jobs, get kids to schools, and have access to medicine and hospitals. Government may not directly provide these public goods and services, but government must be accountable for whether or not they are delivered to citizens.

The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.

The family is the first economy. If the family breaks down, well, government gets bigger because of the consequences of family breakdown. We see in the neighborhoods where there are no marriages and there are no two-parent families.

The reason the government sells the census as your ticket to getting goodies - rather than as your civic duty - is that distributing goodies is now all the government does.

What Canada has to do is to have a government connected to the priorities of the people of which it is elected to serve. Those priorities include ensuring medicare is sustainable, support for the military, and tax and justice systems that work.

I've always believed as a value that the government has a vital - not overwhelming, but vital - role to play in furthering human welfare and good. I think we have an important supportive role to play, hopefully intelligent and sensible.

The government is becoming the family of last resort.

My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn.

Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a nineteenth century society up to about 1970 and then it almost bypassed the twentieth century.

I am not saying that government has nothing to offer. Government has an important role in fostering an environment conducive to business creation while also protecting its citizens. These are not mutually exclusive.

I believe that the role of limited government should be looking after the needs of veterans, the elderly, children and those institutions that improve the quality of life for struggling families - I don't believe that government should bend to serve the needs of subsidized multi-national corporations and entitled billionaires.

I think government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness.

…people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things the government does for others as socialism.

Government is a progressive instrument for the common good.

That’s the function of government—to do for people what they cannot do for themselves.

Government becomes a burden only when it functions on behalf of the poor.

Of course we should have only the government we need. But we must insist on all the government we need.

Government is not just about maintaining the status quo. It's about helping people's lives to work.

Many people say that in a liberalised world there is little for the government to do, but the fact is that there is much for the government to do in fewer areas. One such area is to provide infrastructure.

It is not a government's obligation to provide services, but to see that they are provided.

Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.