“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.”

—  Lee Kuan Yew

Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955
1950s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 10, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any writt…" by Lee Kuan Yew?
Lee Kuan Yew photo
Lee Kuan Yew 72
First Prime Minister of Singapore 1923–2015

Related quotes

Thucydides photo

“In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.”

Variant translation: "Instead, we think the plans of our neighbors are as good as our own, and we can't work out whose chances at war are better in a speech. So we always make our preparations in action, on the assumption that our enemies know what they are doing. We should not build our hopes on the belief that they will make mistakes, but on our own careful foresight. And we should not think there is much difference between one man and another, except that the winner will be the one whose education was the most severe." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Variant translation: "There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much from one another: but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school." Note: Some versions omit the "who have been".
Book I, 1.84-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Lee Kuan Yew photo
Yoweri Museveni photo

“We fought a lonely battle against terrorism sponsored by Sudan, and we have defeated it; we cannot be intimidated by any force. For us our guide is the Constitution of Uganda and the laws there under.”

Yoweri Museveni (1944) President of Uganda

Assuring Ugandans that nobody can disrupt their peace (26 November 2007), https://web.archive.org/web/200711261111/http://www.statehouse.go.ug/news.detail.php?category=News&newsId=673

Winston S. Churchill photo
Richelle Mead photo
John Lewis (civil rights leader) photo

“Our nation is founded on the principle that we do not have kings. We have presidents. And the Constitution is our compass. When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?'”

John Lewis (civil rights leader) (1940) American politician and civil rights leader

For some, he concluded, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.
Source: Quoted in Impeachment is Over, But Don’t Despair by Diallo Brooks, CounterPunch https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/07/impeachment-is-over-but-dont-despair/, (7 Feb 2020)

David Farland photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

My Autobiography by Mussolini, New York: NY, Charles Scribner’s Sons (1928) p. 280.
1920s

Elizabeth I of England photo

“For even our enemies hold our nation resolute and valiant, which though they will not outwardly show, they invariably know. And whensoever the malice of our enemies should cause them to make any attempt against us, I doubt not but we shall have the greatest glory, God fighting for those that truly serve Him with the justness of their quarrel.”

Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603

Speech to Parliament (10 April 1593), quoted in Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller and Mary Rose (eds.), Elizabeth I: Collected Works (The University of Chicago Press, 2002), p. 332.

Related topics