Lee Kuan Yew, as quoted in A talk with the man who made Singapore by Fareed Zakaria, 12 April 1994, The Baltimore Sun

Certain basics about human nature do not change. Man needs a certain moral sense of right and wrong. There is such a thing called evil, and it is not the result of being a victim of society. You are just an evil man, prone to do evil things, and you have to be stopped from doing them.

— Lee Kuan Yew on Human nature

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Certain basics about human nature do not change. Man needs a certain moral sense of right and wrong. There is such a thing called evil, and it is not the result of being a victim of society. You are just an evil man, prone to do evil things, and you have to be stopped from doing them." in the context of "Lee Kuan Yew, as quoted in A talk with the man who made Singapore by Fareed Zakaria, 12 April 1994, The Baltimore Sun" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Human nature" (L) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Lee Kuan Yew

About Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015) was a Singaporean politician. He was the Secretary-general of the People's Action Party (1954–1992) and Singapore Prime Minister (1959–1990), Senior Minister (1990–2004), Minister Mentor (2004–2011).