‘I always tried to be correct, not politically correct’: Lee Kuan Yew’s memorable quotes
'I would say the greatest was Deng Xiaoping. At his age, to admit that he was wrong, that all these ideas, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, they are just not working and have to be abandoned, you need a great man to do that.'
On world leaders and politicians:
On Deng Xiaoping: “I would say the greatest was Deng Xiaoping. At his age, to admit that he was wrong, that all these ideas, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, they are just not working and have to be abandoned, you need a great man to do that."
On Deng Xiaoping again: "Deng Xiaoping is a great man because he changed China from a broken-backed state, which would have imploded like the Soviet Union, into what it is today, on the way to becoming the world’s largest economy.
On Chinese President Xi Jinping: “I would put him in Nelson Mandela’s class of persons. A person with enormous emotional stability who does not allow his personal misfortunes or sufferings to affect his judgement. In other words, he is impressive.”
On the greatest US President: “But for the misfortune of Watergate, I would say Richard Nixon. He had a realistic view of the world. He was a great analyst, realistic, but also a tactician to get things done. But this need with wanting to know everything and to make sure he got re-elected became obsessive.”
On British politicians: “In Britain, if you look at the First Class Honours list of Oxford or Cambridge and trace their careers, you will find that these people end up not in politics, but in banking, finance and the professions.”
On former US president George W Bush: “I would not put him [as] the second worst. I would say Bush Jnr had melancholy advisers … Bush Jnr knew he didn’t have much experience. It is virtue to know yourself."