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.

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

There is nothing to prevent you from pushing your propaganda, to push your programme out to the students or with the public at large…and if you can carry the ground, if you are right, you win. That’s democracy.

If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one.

If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you're putting yourself out of business.

If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.

To straddle the middle ground and win elections, we have to be in charge of the political agenda. This can only be done by not being beaten in the argument with our critics. They complain that I come down too hard on their arguments. But wrong ideas have to be challenged before they influence public opinion and make for problems. Those who try to be clever at the expense of the government should not complain if my replies are as sharp as their criticisms.