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.

At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.

If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law – if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states – then what is it?… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies – even those who do not subscribe to our views – as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself.

I feel sanguine enough to say that there has never been a better set of conditions for open democratic politics because there is no need for unified front politics.

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

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.

If nobody is afraid of me, I'm meaningless.