Top 126 Quotes & Sayings by Mahathir Mohamad - Page 2

Australia is not a safe place.

The Chinese are welcome to invest in industries in Malaysia. But just as we would not welcome mass immigration of Indians or Pakistanis or Europeans or Africans into Malaysia, we have to adopt the same stance on Chinese immigration into Malaysia.

It would seem the people who want to preserve the Penans' way of life are condemning them to a life full of diseases and a shorter life span.

I am not anti-European. I have many friends and acquaintances who are Europeans.

Independence means we enjoy freedom. We are not colonised by people. And we can govern our own country and develop it independently so that our people can live a better life.

We say less things about Australians than Australians say about us, calling me a dictator, authoritarian government.

If Australia wants to be a friend of Asia, it should stop behaving as if it is there to teach us how to run our country.

The biggest mistake that I have made in my life is choosing Najib.

The thinning of the ozone layer is blamed on logging of tropical forests. The fact that the burning of fossil fuels and release of CFCs (chloro-fluoro-carbons) into the atmosphere occur largely in the rich countries are significantly ignored.

Forcing some countries to accept democracy is something that should not be done.

I am the first authoritarian government elected to become a dictator and then resigning as a dictator. So this is the first dictator in the world who has resigned while still quite healthy.

If the countries of Europe and of North America can be almost uniformly prosperous, we don't see why we cannot be allowed to be a little prosperous.

When the British ruled Malaysia, they burnt millions of acres of Malaysian forests so that they could plant rubber.

Why do I want to remove Najib? I should have thought the whole world would know. This man steals money. Not a few hundred dollars, not a few thousand dollars - he stole billions of dollars, and that has been verified by investigations here in Malaysia and the U.S.

When you have a prime minister who is corrupt, then you can be sure that a country cannot be anything else but corrupt.

When the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, Bush immediately identified what he thought was the true cause. It was because the Muslims were jealous of the freedom of the American people. It was because the Muslims were poor. This exposes a lack of understanding of things on his part.

I don't believe that you should punish the people of Iraq because you don't like their leader. Saddam Hussein is not being punished. He's fat, and he is eating enough food and living in palaces. But his people are punished by denying them food and medicine.

Democracy for people who are not used to it can undermine stability, resulting in war.

Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them commercial control of Europe and provoked anti-Semitism, which waxed and waned in Europe throughout the ages.

I resigned on my own, and during my time, the country enjoyed a period of great prosperity.

Whenever I am asked who I admire most among the leaders I have met, I have no hesitation in naming Nelson Mandela.

Looking back now, I realise why, as prime minister of Malaysia, I was described as a dictator. There were many things I did which were typically dictatorial.

Sudden change, even if it is for the good, is disruptive.

Free press is not absolute. In this country, we say clearly if you start stirring up racial hatred, then we will put a stop to it. We might even close down your paper, because these things can only lead to a lot of riots and bloodshed.

I'm followed everywhere - it has become normal for me.

As far as Malaysia is concerned, Singapore is a foreign country.

I want to leave UMNO because it is no longer UMNO. It is a party dedicated to supporting Mr. Najib, to protecting Mr. Najib, to upholding whatever it is that he does, including some of the wrong things that he has done. I cannot be a member of such a party.

I was forced to say, 'I will not censor the Internet.' But I was never convinced.

We all abhor terrorists, but we have to treat them as dangerous to all of us, not to any one particular country.

In the eyes of the world, Malaysia has become a pariah state, a state where anyone can be hauled up and questioned by the police, detained, and charged through abusing laws of the country.

The West is very impatient. You want overnight change.

We believe that human rights always applies to the majority, who should have its rights protected. When people demonstrate and go to the streets, they deprive the majority from earning a living.

I don't care how sacred is freedom, but I think the time has come for governments, at least the Malaysian government, to censor the Internet.

There are certain things that we can deal with by following the rules. But at times, we find the rules restrict you from doing the right things. On such occasions, we have to rethink - either you change the rules or break the rules.

We want to defend the rights of Malaysians. We don't want to sell chunks of this country to foreign companies who will develop whole towns.

You can be a liberal and accept same-sex marriage and all that, but that's your business.

If India is not too democratic, it will be like China in terms of development.

We have had dealings with terrorists for a long time. From 1948 until 1990, we had domestic terrorism because the pro-communist groups wanted to overthrow the colonial government.

The Internet is undermining moral values.

No one should have extra influence on an organisation. We should always regard ourselves as equals in the organisation, and we should be concerned about each other's problems.

If you know each other well, you want to do business with people you know well. You don't do business with strangers.

Knowledge has always been important, of course. The ancient Egyptians did not raise the stones for the pyramids relying on the incantations of their gods. The waters in the irrigation canals of the great Indus Civilisation did not flow according to the laws of ignorance. Knowledge has always been power and wealth.

I not only think but also look and study things carefully. When I travel around, I look at things carefully, make comparisons of what I see. I don't accept things at face value, you cannot trust what you hear or see. Don't jump to conclusions without thinking.

Some people say that we here have no freedom of religion, ... In reality, the people in that country are the ones who were forced to embrace a religion.

Malaysians, during the colonial period, were not given the top positions: we were always subordinate. Fortunately for us, the people who took over were mainly civil servants: people who were serving the Government.

I'm a fundamentalist in the true sense. That is to say, I follow the fundamentals of religion... But for over 1,400 years people have been interpreting and re-interpreting the religion to suit their own purpose! ... These [extremist and terrorist acts] are not Islamic fundamentals any more than the Christians who burned people at the stake are fundamentalist. They are actually deviating from the teachings of the religion!

I'm brash and abrasive but that's because I've noticed when people are nice and polite they never get anywhere.

When you have elections in which 90% or 95% or 99% of those elected come from one party, then I think there is some fraudulent act.

History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children, or as the lying prime minister and president.

Currency trading is unnecessary, unproductive and totally immoral. It should be stopped.

Once started, religious strife has a tendency to go on and on - to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Ireland, between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Palestine, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist elements invoking past injustices, imagined or real, will succeed in torpedoing the peace efforts and bringing about another bout of hostility.

The Malays are spiritually inclined, tolerant and easy-going. The non-Malays, and especially the Chinese, are materialistic, aggressive and have an appetite for work. For equality to come about, it is necessary that these strikingly contrasting races adjust to each other.

Most developing countries would know Malaysia quite well. Why? It is because we believe in contacts. We offer them some help for training, for example. We call it 'technical cooperation'.

We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right.

When I became Prime Minister, I looked back on what was done before – what were the policies and actions before – and I thought that I need to be critical if I’m going to do anything at all.

I cannot keep quiet even when I am a lone voice.

If you can't be famous, at least you can be notorious.

Membership of an organisation is good, as long as you can make yourself heard.

Any organisation has a future, provided it is properly led and it sticks to the objective of that organisation.

Developing countries like Malaysia should have a say in changing the world financial system since we have faced the problems that it has caused.