Quotes from Mahathir Mohamad

Australia is not a safe place.

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.

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.

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

Big corporations don't just belong to one person or two persons but to a whole nation. If you let big corporations fail, then a lot of people are going to suffer.

I won't call it UMNO anymore; this is Najib's party. I feel embarrassed that I am associated with a party that is seen as supporting corruption - it had caused me to feel ashamed.

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.

It is always the right of the mighty which prevails over the weak, and that is very primitive.

Planning means looking ahead.

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

Being a medical practitioner enables me to get in touch with people, understand their problems, feel sympathetic towards them, and the natural thing is to want to help them, and if you become a politician and if you are successful, you can help them even more.

Malaysia has got all the things in place to continue growth: the policies are there; the mechanisms are there. So, I think even when I am not around, Malaysia can do with other people who are converse with our policies.

In Asia, we live within our means. So when we are poor, we live as poor people. I think that is a lesson that Europe can learn from Asia.

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

Airplanes don't just disappear - certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems, radio and satellite tracking, and filmless cameras which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities.

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.

Not many dictators announce their resignation, but I did because I didn't want to stay on and overstay my welcome.

Suppose a part of Britain or a part of America was taken away and given to the Jews as Israel. Do you think the Americans are going to sit quietly and say 'Welcome,' and all that? They won't.

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.

The West only talks about how you can militarily defeat the terrorists, but terrorists are very difficult to defeat because they can appear anywhere.

I'm basically a creature of habit - I do practically the same thing every week, every day of every week: I go to the office, I meet people, I write, I read, and, of course, I give lectures.

For me, to say I want to go to sleep and retire and prepare for my afterlife, I think that is very selfish.

There is no such thing as absolute freedom of the press, not even in the most advanced countries in the world. There are things you just don't say, because it will destabilise the environment.

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