Top 100 Singapore's Quotes
#1. To put it bluntly, there isn't one economic theory that can single-handedly explain Singapore's success; its economy combines extreme features of capitalism and socialism. All theories are partial; reality is complex.
Ha-Joon Chang
#2. The serene confidence with which Western journalists and liberal academics prescribe solutions to our [Singapore's] problems is a source of constant wonder to us.
Goh Keng Swee
#3. Even in a society as tightly controlled as Singapore's, the market creates certain forces which perhaps in the long run may lead to democracy.
Peter L. Berger
#4. Based on German prototypes, green walls and roofs are a natural idea in Singapore's tropical environment, where mosses, ferns, philodendrons, orchids and other epiphytes literally grow on trees.
Alan Huffman
#5. exemplified the dull rigidity of Singapore's old colonial fantasies about itself.
Jonathan Lethem
#6. In some countries - Finland and Singapore and South Korea, for instance - future schoolteachers are recruited from the best college-bound students, whereas a teacher in the United States is more likely to come from the bottom half of her class.
Anonymous
#7. I know an elderly society matron in Singapore who would rather walk in the scorching sun for blocks on end rather than have her chauffeur drive into the Central Business District at peak hour and pay the $1.50 surcharge.
Kevin Kwan
#8. If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one.
Lee Kuan Yew
#9. If all else perish, there will remain8 a story-teller's world from Singapore to the Marquesas that is exclusively and forever Maugham, a world of veranda and prahu which we enter, as we do that of Conan Doyle's Baker Street, with a sense of happy and eternal homecoming.
Selina Shirley Hastings
#10. I like to see you in a sari, with your long hair dressed in a single plait. Don't forget that I married a girl from India because I like my wife to be conservative and feminine.
K. Kanagalatha
#11. I went to a private school in Singapore and they had an incredible arts program. Every day I was doing something artistic.
Lynn Collins
#12. Well, the questioner came from Singapore which has perhaps the best economic record in the history of developing an economy and therefore he referred to 15% per annum as modest. It's not modest-it's arrogant. Only someone from Singapore would call it modest.
Charlie Munger
#13. The sea was no stranger to the rock on the beach. The sea came often to the rock, rushing up wetly against its warm grey, and always as it swept away it took an infinitesimal part of the rock with it. The rock had known the waves for a long time, and learned it was in its nature to erode.
Chew Chia Shao Wei
#14. White froth bubbles from the mouth of Chow Sze Teck. The airconditioner is still running and the room is dark. Slumped over the mahogany desk in his study, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Housing is, as always, immaculately dressed.
Wong Souk Yee
#15. English. That was where I met him.
Andrew Koh
#16. Dear family,
I am drafting a new laundry protocol for better and more considerate usage of the washing machine
Koh Choon Hwee
#17. I've never been invited to do an exhibition or do a talk in England, except once, about 10 years ago. I've given talks all across Canada, many in the United States, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan - but not England.
Brian Wildsmith
#18. If I go to Singapore, I have friends there. If they came to Zambia, they'd feel the same way. I've made connections, and I have friends in many, many countries.
Dambisa Moyo
#19. If I were in authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who are governed whether they like what is being done, then I would not have the slightest doubt that I could govern much more effectively in their interests.
Lee Kuan Yew
#20. Singapore is what your city could become if everyone obeyed the rules, did their jobs diligently, and just shut up. When your city gets to be this paragon of efficiency and discipline, would you still want to live there? Singapore is a model city, which is terrific if you happen to be a model human.
Jessica Zafra
#21. The four of us got back into the car. In an instant, I distinctly heard a "soundless music". It was the melody of friendship, the sound of a perfectly tuned quartet who got together by chance, four hearts playing in harmony.
You Jin
#22. The most complete site of express buses and coaches in Singapore
Singapore
#23. It was inspiring to learn of the new Bachelor of Environmental Studies Program, and I congratulate you for it. Singapore is geographically in the right central position for an influence in Asia and Australia, and NUS has the reputation and academic strength to make it effective.
E. O. Wilson
#24. In Singapore, there may be 50 old-money families, but you wouldn't know them to look at them.
Kevin Kwan
#25. Many years later, Sophia will think of this night, and how close she was to tears. She will wonder how she could have allowed herself to arrive there, but also feel a twinge of loss for the girl still capable of losing control.
Jeremy Tiang
#26. For us Australians, Singapore also represents sacred soil. Almost 2000 Australians died here in the defense of your island country and our neighborhood.
Michael Jeffery
#27. India, Pakistan, China, Singapore and South Korea are heavily investing in nuclear arms. Since 21st century is the century of Asia, Asian countries should be the first ones to drop this arms race.
Oscar Arias
#28. Singaporeans seemed generally quite loathe to discuss these more intimate policies of government with a curious foreign visitor who was more than twice as tall as the average human, and who sweated slowly but continuously, like and aged cheese.
William Gibson
#29. Nobody in Singapore drinks Singapore Slings. It's one of the first things you find out there. What you do in Singapore is eat. It's a really food-crazy culture, where all of this great food is available in a kind of hawker-stand environment.
Anthony Bourdain
#30. Perhaps Singapore could learn from us a more relaxed way of life.
Aung San Suu Kyi
#31. At least when it comes to food, there's no snobbery in Singapore.
Kevin Kwan
#32. Different parts of the world have different attitudes to failure. Arguably, it may take more courage to be an entrepreneur in Sydney, or Paris, or London, or Japan, or Singapore ... but an entrepreneur sees the world for what it could be, not what it is.
Guy Kawasaki
#33. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.
Lee Kuan Yew
#34. During the Japanese invasion, bombs had fallen from the sky and people could run for cover. Now, they exploded in the middle of the road, or in the fields while people were playing soccer.
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed
#35. Meanwhile, Singapore has implemented an Electronic Road Pricing System that has virtually eliminated congestion. Americans collectively spend over one hundred billion hours stuck in traffic jams, a testament to the fact that road pricing is not yet widely adopted.
Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee
#36. I remember clearly the afternoon that she stood at the corner beside the door of the tourist centre in Gdansk.
You Jin
#37. Whatever initiatives we launch, we must always put the interests of Singaporeans and Singapore first.
Tony Tan
#38. I was very impressed with the street food of Singapore. I was very impressed with the dishes that they did.
Jose Andres
#39. Facebook is blocked in mainland China, but is used heavily by the rest of the Chinese-speaking world, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Rebecca MacKinnon
#40. I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.
Raymond Chandler
#41. I mostly believe, deep in my bones, that life is very simply beyond description; regardless of what one makes of it, life always spills over the parameters of how anyone has chosen to define it.
Cyril Wong
#42. Replace it. 7. Please say what you are doing and how you propose to overcome the growing difficulties of sending reinforcements into Singapore. Also, what has been done about reducing number of useless mouths in Singapore Island? What was the reply about supplies? *** It is not possible to pursue
Winston S. Churchill
#43. The countries who do the best in international comparisons, whether it's Finland or Japan, Denmark or Singapore, do well because they have professional teachers who are respected, and they also have family and community which support learning.
Howard Gardner
#44. My number one goal was to always have to opportunity to have an international business of some sort, opening in Paris, opening in Tokyo, opening in Singapore for example, that was always my dream, and so it came about.
David Myers
#45. Urban design as a discipline barely exists in most American and Canadian cities. In Singapore, there are innovative transportation strategies at work.
Moshe Safdie
#46. The U.S. has the finest research scientists in the world, but we are falling far behind other countries, like South Korea and Singapore, that are moving forward with embryonic stem cell research.
Louise Slaughter
#47. Once
There was a quiet island,
With a name.
You must believe me
When I say that sunlight,
Impure but beautiful,
Broke upon the bay, silvered
The unrepentant, burning moon.
Edwin Thumboo
#48. For him, the kampung was a place to live and work that was based on a steadfast and intimate relationship between man and nature. The village was a true reflection of life in the tropics.
Isa Kamari
#49. Asia can learn much from Europe. Trade could be made easier in Asia, and the conditions for doing business could be improved by reducing red tape. In this regard, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have done better than the best in Europe.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati
#50. When you brought the digital revolution in, all of a sudden, you could build a country like Singapore and take that country, which had the income per capita of Ghana in 1965, and make it something similar to the United States in one generation.
Juan Enriquez
#51. I love cities. New York, Montreal, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, L.A ... but, I do choose to live in Vancouver. It's home.
Stewart Butterfield
#52. It was past midnight. From the carpark of the apartment blocks, a human figure with an unsteady gait emerged.
Lim Thean Soo
#53. Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards. This is your life and mine. I've spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I'm in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.
Mr. Lee
#54. The risks of piracy spreading beyond the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and beyond are substantial.
Peter Middlebrook
#55. Sometimes, some foreign reporters who come to Singapore to interview me, and they wonder, why we conduct Meet-the-People's sessions at the void deck. So much for a first world nation.
Low Thia Khiang
#56. Our success in Singapore was a Herculean effort by the whole team. Now I am determined to deliver on all we promised. I will be watching like a hawk.
Sebastian Coe
#57. Growing up in Singapore, I wasn't allowed to visit China. So when I was finally able to go there after the country began opening up to tourism in the 1990s, I found it to be utterly astounding.
Kevin Kwan
#59. How could I remain a spectator while Singapore faces such complex challenges? How could I not step forward when I know I have more to contribute to the country we all worked to build?
Tony Tan
#60. I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing.
Kevin Kwan
#61. In Singapore, there is this life and locals and restaurants and then big casinos and an array of chefs, and even Miami is almost close to Vegas when it comes to an amazing presentation of chefs. But they don't have these massive hotels that have become their own culinary villages.
Daniel Boulud
#62. I'm completely taken and impressed by the planning authority of Singapore and its Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It's the most cutting-edge agency in the world. They have very effective guidelines for development, and they review design as it evolves.
Moshe Safdie
#63. What does it mean to write a story of your own life in your head? We all do that whether we are writers or not. We all have a story about who we are: what gender we are, what experiences we have . . . all sorts of stories and narratives we allow ourselves to believe in and create as we go along.
Cyril Wong
#64. No more coming home as to a death sentence.
No more leaving after this leaving.
Boey Kim Cheng
#65. My family was in Singapore when the Japanese War started. We were in Singapore at the time of Pearl Harbor, and by the beginning of 1942, the Japanese invasion of Burma and Singapore had started.
Tom Stoppard
#66. Singapore could only be taken after a siege by an army of at least 50,000 men. It is not considered possible that the Japanese would embark on such a mad enterprise.
Winston Churchill
#67. My loyalty is first and foremost, to the people of Singapore. It has always been so, and will always remain so.
Ong Teng Cheong
#68. Shaw Centre has restaurants on the fourth floor, where the ACS boy can pull chairs out for her. Girls love this because no one else does it for them, especially not those sotong RI boys.
Justin Ker
#69. Malaysia-Singapore bilateral relations can blossom beautifully if cultivated and nurtured like an orchid plant.
Najib Razak
#70. I grew up at a time in Singapore - the '70s and '80s - where it was still possible to go riding around the island barefoot. And I was one of these kids that was just climbing trees and running around the neighbourhood.
Kevin Kwan
#71. capita in the Republic of Korea was 121.8%. For Taiwan, that figure was 88.0%. In Hong Kong, real GDP growth per capita in that period leaped 64.2%, while in Singapore it was 77.5%. Growth in real earnings has been even more impressive,
Callum Henderson
#72. Singapore had taken a much more, well, Singaporean approach to the problem of hippies than the Malaysians had. They'd let them in, but only if they got a haircut.
Peter Moore
#73. Our regular fitness programme means that the race lasting longer than others should not be a problem, but something you have to prepare for in Singapore is ensuring you always keep well-hydrated, as the heat and humidity can easily dehydrate you.
Romain Grosjean
#74. Programmes like the BES are what make the difference between a good university & one that is truly outstanding. I believe this programme will be invaluable for the future sustainability of Singapore and the region; perhaps even the world, if others follow our lead.
Geh Min
#75. The Singapore Open is the flagship event of the Asian Tour, it is a massive event and it is being played in a great place. I love coming here and it is good to be back.
Lee Westwood
#77. Achievements in successful export industries, which need highly skilled people, can create an area as flourishing as South Korea and Singapore.
Stef Wertheimer
#78. Singapore is an international city, and it would be a grave mistake to close our doors.
Tony Tan
#79. Great. Darcy is the ruler of our school. Prety soon, Julius is going to be like Singapore - you'll get a $500 fine for chewing gum or making out in the hallways.
Flynn Meaney
#80. Getting to places like Bangkok or Singapore was a hell of a sweat. But when you got there it was the back of beyond. It was just a series of small tin sheds.
David Attenborough
#81. I stand by my record. I did some sharp things to get things right - too harsh - but a lot was at stake. But at the end of the day, what have I got? Just a successful Singapore.
Mr. Lee
#82. I think in Singapore, we stand a chance of making the one-man-one-vote system work. With amendments as we have done, you know, like GRCs.. We need to make it work. And I believe with pragmatic adjustments, given these favourable conditions, we can have more open debate.
Lee Kuan Yew
#83. But seriously Holden, what is the island called now?"
"Sentosa," Holden said romantically and with a flourish of his unoccupied left hand.
"Sentosa. Sounds romantic all right. So this is the progress you're talking about?
Robert Yeo
#84. My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore.
Kevin Kwan
#85. Pak Karman hugged his wife's gravestone tightly. "You left without saying farewell!" The whole of the graveyard was ablaze with light.
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed
#86. The rain is a screen that changes the colour of the sky, causing a sepia filter to fall over the city. It is as if the city has gone back in time, to the age before the invention of full-coloured photographs. Light becomes suffused and quiet.
Justin Ker
#87. My main mission when I became Prime Minister, was to keep Singapore going and Singapore has been kept going. So, I'm happy with what I've done for Singapore.
Goh Chok Tong
#88. There are myriad kisses in a relationship: desperate ones as involuntary as breathing, stolen ones on crowded trains, ceremonial ones at the front door, routine ones as dispassionate as licking an envelope. It takes two to kiss, but does it take two to hold the memory?
Stephanie Ye
#89. I don't much like Singapore. It's very big, very modern and very urbanised. As a rule, I prefer older places where you get a sense of the history.
Philippa Gregory
#90. There was something vaguely sad about the rock. It was as old as it looked, standing weathered and lonely amidst the stretch of sand, and its thoughts were quiet as it listened to the waves.
Chew Chia Shao Wei
#91. The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.
Lee Kuan Yew
#92. Where have all the flowers of old Singapore gone? Gone, one would imagine, with the old folks and homes
Thien
#93. Throughout these pages, my brush weeps in sorrow for what happened in Tiananmen Square.
Not for the first time, a government was turning the guns on its people. Has the world learned nothing from history?
Morgan Chua
#94. Like so much in Singapore, admission to the Marina Bay's casino is hierarchical: Free for anyone with an international passport, costly for locals, off-limits to migrant workers altogether.
Alan Huffman
#95. In a few years, it is very likely that this series will be considered a milestone in the history of Singapore photography.
Raphael Millet
#96. For her and Nurul merely to share a meal cooked in their own kitchen was a triumph; to wake up together each morning a luxury.
Jolene Tan
#97. Brian organised for the body to be flown back.
Jolene Tan
#98. The fact is Qatar, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore, Garuda, all of the three Chinese airlines, Air New Zealand - the fact is that international aviation relies very much upon agreements between nation-states, and it is not an area in which you have free market operations.
Anthony Albanese
#99. Through his long, productive career, Paul Theroux has mixed nonfiction books about exotic travel with novels set in exotic places. Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Honduras - he lives in and writes about places most of us never see.
Floyd Skloot
#100. Life is too short to be spent doing just one thing!
Radkris
