diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a72019e..e366e1c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -556,23 +556,6 @@ if test "x$enable_debug" = "x1" ; then
 fi
 AC_SUBST([enable_debug])
 
-dnl Only optimize if not debugging.
-if test "x$enable_debug" = "x0" -a "x$no_CFLAGS" = "xyes" ; then
-  dnl Make sure that an optimization flag was not specified in EXTRA_CFLAGS.
-  optimize="no"
-  echo "$EXTRA_CFLAGS" | grep "\-O" >/dev/null || optimize="yes"
-  if test "x${optimize}" = "xyes" ; then
-    if test "x$GCC" = "xyes" ; then
-      JE_CFLAGS_APPEND([-O3])
-      JE_CFLAGS_APPEND([-funroll-loops])
-    elif test "x$je_cv_msvc" = "xyes" ; then
-      JE_CFLAGS_APPEND([-O2])
-    else
-      JE_CFLAGS_APPEND([-O])
-    fi
-  fi
-fi
-
 dnl Enable statistics calculation by default.
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([stats],
   [AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-stats],