155 Quotes by Mahathir Mohamad

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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