Top 100 Margaret Thatcher Quotes
#3. Good Conservatives always pay their bills. And on time. Not like the Socialists who run up other people's bills.
Margaret Thatcher
#4. It is no exaggeration to describe plain English as a fundamental tool of government.
Margaret Thatcher
#5. Is there conscience in the Kremlin? Do they ever ask themselves what is the purpose of life? What is it all for? ... No. Their creed is barren of conscience, immune to the promptings of good and evil.
Margaret Thatcher
#6. To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.
Margaret Thatcher
#8. I do wish I had brought my cheque book. I don't believe in credit cards.
Margaret Thatcher
#10. No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.
Margaret Thatcher
#11. Everything a politician promises at election time has to be paid for either by higher taxation or by borrowing.
Margaret Thatcher
#12. Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.
Margaret Thatcher
#13. We should not expect the state to appear in the guise of an extravagant good fairy at every christening, a loquacious companion at every stage of life's journey, and the unknown mourner at every funeral.
Margaret Thatcher
#14. You can present people with ideas they may come to believe in, and as a result of them they will act, if they have the opportunities. Presenting people with opportunities is part of what politics is about.
Margaret Thatcher
#15. We should not underestimate the enormity of the task which lies ahead. But little can be achieved without sound money. It is the bedrock of sound government.
Margaret Thatcher
#16. Bribing regimes to comply with requirements which they should have acknowledged in the first place is not a process that appeals to me.
Margaret Thatcher
#18. I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society
from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.
Margaret Thatcher
#19. Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mist of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past.
Margaret Thatcher
#20. We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.
Margaret Thatcher
#21. All the general propositions favouring freedom I had .. imbibed at my father's knee or acquired by candle-end reading of Burke and Hayek ...
Margaret Thatcher
#22. The desire to win is born in most of us. The will to win is a matter of training. The manner of winning is a matter of honour.
Margaret Thatcher
#23. We must not fall into the mistake of thinking that it is America that trades with Taiwan or Europe that trades with Asia. The truth is that it is American companies that trade with Taiwanese companies.
Margaret Thatcher
#24. I wouldn't be worth my salt if I weren't attracting some controversy and criticism. Everyone in the world who has done something in life has attracted criticism.
Margaret Thatcher
#26. Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag.
Margaret Thatcher
#27. I couldn't live without work. That's what makes me so sympathetic towards those people who are unemployed. I don't know how they live without working.
Margaret Thatcher
#28. I still want to play in it, maybe when I absolutely think I have no chance of playing in it my view might change but I doubt it because it just doesn't interest me.
Margaret Thatcher
#29. We do not believe that if you cut back what government does you diminish its authority. On the contrary, a government that did less, and therefore did better, would strengthen its authority.
Margaret Thatcher
#30. It must be a conviction Government. As Prime Minister I could not waste time having internal arguments.
Margaret Thatcher
#31. I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
Margaret Thatcher
#32. I have never knowingly made a non-controversial speech in my life.
Margaret Thatcher
#34. The Prime Minister is stealing our clothes but he is going to look pretty ridiculous walking around in mine.
Margaret Thatcher
#35. [When asked how it felt to be a female prime minister:] I don't know: I've never experienced the alternative.
Margaret Thatcher
#36. It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think that they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.
Margaret Thatcher
#39. Reagan did not suffer from the dismal plague of doubts which has assailed so many politicians in our times and which has rendered them incapable of clear decisions.
Margaret Thatcher
#40. I exercise my right as a free citizen to spend my own money in my own way, so that I can go on the day, the time, to the doctor I choose and get out fast.
Margaret Thatcher
#41. You don't win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and making your message perfectly clear.
Margaret Thatcher
#42. We're saying to anyone who dares to attack us, Do not do it, you couldn't win, the result would be devastating! I think you're saying the same.
Margaret Thatcher
#43. Most women defend themselves. It is the female of the species-it is the tigress and lioness in you which tends to defend when attacked.
Margaret Thatcher
#44. I think perhaps we manage our revolutions much more quietly in this country.
Margaret Thatcher
#46. I've learned one thing in politics. You don't take a decision until you have to.
Margaret Thatcher
#48. There is much to be said for trying to improve some disadvantaged people's lot. There is nothing to be said for trying to create heaven on earth.
Margaret Thatcher
#50. Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.
Margaret Thatcher
#51. [On being asked how many Mrs. Thatchers there were:] Oh, three at least. There is the intellectual one, the intuitive one and the one at home.
Margaret Thatcher
#52. Had I faltered we would have neither the success nor the international reputation we have. Yet when a woman is strong she is strident. If a man is strong, he's a good guy.
Margaret Thatcher
#53. Remember the 'Parable of the Talents' in the New Testament? Christ exhorts us to be the best we can be by developing our skills and abilities, by succeeding in all our tasks and endeavors. What better description can there be of capitalism?
Margaret Thatcher
#54. It seems like cloud cuckoo land. If anyone is suggesting that I would go to Parliament and suggest the abolition of the Pound Sterling - no! We have made it quite clear that we will not have a single currency imposed upon us.
Margaret Thatcher
#55. History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is based on moral foundations. You can get the economics right, but in addition liberty must be cultivated as a moral quality.
Margaret Thatcher
#56. Being prime minister is a lonely job ... you cannot lead from the crowd.
Margaret Thatcher
#57. Free enterprise has enabled the creative and the acquisitive urges of man to be given expression in a way which benefits all members of society. Let free enterprise fight back now, not for itself, but for all those who believe in freedom.
Margaret Thatcher
#60. I have a habit of comparing the phraseology of communiques ... noting a certain similarity of words, a certain similarity of optimism ... and a certain similarity in the lack of practical results during the ensuring years.
Margaret Thatcher
#62. How very popular to say, 'spend more on this, expend more on that.' And of course, we all have our favorite causes; I know I do. But someone has to add up the figures. Every business has to do it, every housewife has to do it, [and] every government should do it.
Margaret Thatcher
#63. I calculate that I was responsible for proposing the elevation to the Lords of some 214 of its present numbers.
Margaret Thatcher
#64. Successful entrepreneurship is ultimately a matter of flair. But there is also a fund of practical knowledge to be acquired and, of course, the right legal and financial framework has to be provided for productive enterprise to develop.
Margaret Thatcher
#65. I shan't be pulling the levers there but I shall be a very good back-seat driver.
Margaret Thatcher
#66. Most women are far more intelligent than people give them credit for.
Margaret Thatcher
#68. When you stop a dictator, there are always risks. But there are greater risks in not stopping a dictator.
Margaret Thatcher
#69. A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.
Margaret Thatcher
#70. One only gets to the top rung on the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly, all sorts of powers, all sorts of abilities which you thought never belonged to you - suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, 'Well, I'll have a go, too.'
Margaret Thatcher
#71. The first step in calculating which way to go is to find out where you are.
Margaret Thatcher
#72. They are all a rotten lot. Schmidt and the Americans and we are the only people who would do any standing up and fighting if necessary.
Margaret Thatcher
#73. The messages on our banners in 1979 - freedom, opportunity, family, enterprise, ownership - are now inscribed on the banners in Leipzig, Warsaw, Budapest and even Moscow.
Margaret Thatcher
#74. Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.
Margaret Thatcher
#76. I remain totally convinced that when children are young, however busy we may be with the practical duties inside the home, themost important thing of all is to devbote enoughh time and care to their needs and problems.
Margaret Thatcher
#77. A leader is someone who knows what they want to achieve and can communicate that.
Margaret Thatcher
#79. One hopes to achieve the zero option, but in the absence of that we must achieve balanced numbers.
Margaret Thatcher
#80. As the former dissident Vladimir Bukovsky one remarked
referring to the Russian proverb to the effect that you cannot make an omlette without breaking eggs
he had seen plenty of broken eggs, but had never tasted any omlette.
Margaret Thatcher
#81. I don't know what I would do without Whitelaw. Everyone should have a Willy.
Margaret Thatcher
#82. The feminists hate me, don't they? And I don't blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.
Margaret Thatcher
#83. Please don't use the word tough. People might get the impression that I don't care. And I do care, very deeply. Resilient, I think.
Margaret Thatcher
#84. A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country's flag.
Margaret Thatcher
#85. Socialism lays an bad egg by killing the capitalism that lays the golden eggs
Margaret Thatcher
#86. There is a nonsense about intelligent women not being beautiful.
Margaret Thatcher
#87. Our judgement is that the presence of the Royal Marines garrison is sufficient deterrent against any possible aggression.
Margaret Thatcher
#88. The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
Margaret Thatcher
#89. Gentlemen, if we don't cut spending we will be bankrupt. Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live. Should we withhold the medicine? No. We are not wrong. We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation.
Margaret Thatcher
#91. I'll stay until I'm tired of it. So long as Britain needs me, I shall never be tired of it.
Margaret Thatcher
#92. Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it.
Margaret Thatcher
#93. We were told our campaign wasn't sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.
Margaret Thatcher
#94. The National Health Service is safe with us. The principle of adequate healthcare should be provided for all regardless of ability to pay must be the function of any arrangements for financing the NHS. We stand by that.
Margaret Thatcher
#95. It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.
Margaret Thatcher
#96. To the extent that the West is to blame at all for the ills of the Third World it is to the extent that the West created Marx and his successors, among whom must be numbered many of those who advised the Third World leaders in post-war years.
Margaret Thatcher
#98. We intend freedom and justice to conquer. Yes, we do have a creed and we wish others to share it. But it is not part of our policy to impose our beliefs by force or threat of force.
Margaret Thatcher
#100. We simply cannot delegate the exercise of mercy and generosity to others.
Margaret Thatcher
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