Margaret Thatcher

You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.

— Margaret Thatcher

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's a funny old world.

— Margaret Thatcher

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

— Margaret Thatcher

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

— Margaret Thatcher

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing."

— Margaret Thatcher

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

— Margaret Thatcher

There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.

— Margaret Thatcher

Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.

— Margaret Thatcher

It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.

— Margaret Thatcher

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.

— Margaret Thatcher

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

— Margaret Thatcher

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

— Margaret Thatcher

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

— Margaret Thatcher

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

— Margaret Thatcher

I owe nothing to Women's Lib.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's a funny old world.

— Margaret Thatcher

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.

— Margaret Thatcher

You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.

— Margaret Thatcher

This lady is not for turning.

— Margaret Thatcher

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

— Margaret Thatcher

The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.

— Margaret Thatcher

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

— Margaret Thatcher

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

— Margaret Thatcher

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

— Margaret Thatcher

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

— Margaret Thatcher

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.

— Margaret Thatcher

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

— Margaret Thatcher

Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.

— Margaret Thatcher

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary - not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn't want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

— Margaret Thatcher

We Conservatives hate unemployment.

— Margaret Thatcher

I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.

— Margaret Thatcher

It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

— Margaret Thatcher

If... many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

— Margaret Thatcher

You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

— Margaret Thatcher

Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.

— Margaret Thatcher

If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

— Margaret Thatcher

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

— Margaret Thatcher

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

— Margaret Thatcher

We were told our campaign wasn't sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.

— Margaret Thatcher

I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

— Margaret Thatcher

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

— Margaret Thatcher

Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

— Margaret Thatcher

A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.

— Margaret Thatcher

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

— Margaret Thatcher

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

— Margaret Thatcher

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

— Margaret Thatcher

There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.

— Margaret Thatcher

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

— Margaret Thatcher

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

— Margaret Thatcher

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

— Margaret Thatcher

Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.

— Margaret Thatcher

It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's a funny old world.

— Margaret Thatcher

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

— Margaret Thatcher

If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage.

— Margaret Thatcher

It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.

— Margaret Thatcher

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

— Margaret Thatcher

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

— Margaret Thatcher

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

— Margaret Thatcher

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

— Margaret Thatcher

People think that at the top there isn't much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

— Margaret Thatcher

I just owe almost everything to my father and it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

— Margaret Thatcher

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

— Margaret Thatcher

There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it.

— Margaret Thatcher

Being prime minister is a lonely job... you cannot lead from the crowd.

— Margaret Thatcher

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

— Margaret Thatcher

The battle for women's rights has been largely won.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

— Margaret Thatcher

I like Mr. Gorbachev, we can do business together.

— Margaret Thatcher

Ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause while the hijack lasted.

— Margaret Thatcher

Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

— Margaret Thatcher

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

— Margaret Thatcher

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

— Margaret Thatcher

If... many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

— Margaret Thatcher

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

— Margaret Thatcher

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

— Margaret Thatcher

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

— Margaret Thatcher

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

— Margaret Thatcher

In considering our traditional ties with the Commonwealth we should remember that it now differs greatly from the entity which existed 20 or 30 years ago. Many of us do not feel quite the same allegiance to Archbishop Makarios or Doctor Nkrumah or to people like Jomo Kenyatta as we do towards Mr. Menzies of Australia.

— Margaret Thatcher

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

— Margaret Thatcher

I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.

— Margaret Thatcher

I started life with two great advantages: no money, and good parents.

— Margaret Thatcher

I wish I could say that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done himself less than justice. Unfortunately, I can only say that I believe he has done himself justice. Some Chancellors are macro-economic. Other Chancellors are fiscal. This one is just plain cheap.

— Margaret Thatcher

If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.

— Margaret Thatcher

And I will go on criticising Socialism, and opposing Socialism because it is bad for Britain – and Britain and Socialism are not the same thing...It's the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual Socialist disease – they’ve run out of other people's money.

— Margaret Thatcher

Some Socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a State computer. We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else, however much the Socialists may pretend otherwise. We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.

— Margaret Thatcher

Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them.

— Margaret Thatcher

People from my sort of background needed Grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.

— Margaret Thatcher

My job is to stop Britain from going red.

— Margaret Thatcher

Madame Chairman, I presume this is to sweep Britain clean of socialism

— Margaret Thatcher

People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture...So, if you want good race relations, you have got to allay peoples' fears on numbers...we do have to hold out the prospect of an end to immigration except, of course, for compassionate cases...We are not in politics to ignore peoples' worries: we are in politics to deal with them.

— Margaret Thatcher

The only way to do the best you can is to work as hard as you can.

— Margaret Thatcher

We shall have to learn again to be one nation, or one day we shall be no nation.

— Margaret Thatcher

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

— Margaret Thatcher

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

— Margaret Thatcher

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

— Margaret Thatcher

I have thought long and deeply about the post of Foreign Secretary and have decided to offer it to Peter Carrington who – as I am sure you will agree – will do the job superbly.

— Margaret Thatcher

I just owe almost everything to my father and it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

— Margaret Thatcher

Pennies don't fall from heaven, they have to be earned here on earth.

— Margaret Thatcher

We are not asking for a penny piece of Community money for Britain. What we are asking is for a very large amount of our own money back, over and above what we contribute to the Community, which is covered by our receipts from the Community.

— Margaret Thatcher

Gentlemen, there is nothing sweeter than success, and you boys have got it!

— Margaret Thatcher

There really is no alternative.

— Margaret Thatcher

To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. [laughter] The lady's not for turning.

— Margaret Thatcher

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

— Margaret Thatcher

Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.

— Margaret Thatcher

My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am sure you will agree that, in Britain with our democratic institutions and the need for a high degree of consent, some of the measures adopted in Chile are quite unacceptable. Our reform must be in line with our traditions and our Constitution. At times the process may seem painfully slow. But I am certain we shall achieve our reforms in our own way and in our own time. Then they will endure.

— Margaret Thatcher

It's a funny old world.

— Margaret Thatcher

Just rejoice at that news and congratulate our forces and the marines. .. Rejoice.

— Margaret Thatcher

We fought to show that aggression does not pay and that the robber cannot be allowed to get away with his swag. We fought with the support of so many throughout the world: the Security Council, the Commonwealth, the European Community, and the United States. Yet we also fought alone – for we fought for our own sovereign territory.

— Margaret Thatcher

The spirit of the South Atlantic was the spirit of Britain at her best. It has been said that we surprised the world, that British patriotism was rediscovered in those spring days. Mr. President, it was never really lost.

— Margaret Thatcher

The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election is he? Oh, if I were going to cut and run I'd have gone after the Falklands. Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Couldn't take it? Couldn't stand it? Right now inflation is lower than it has been for thirteen years, a record the right hon. Gentleman couldn't begin to touch!

— Margaret Thatcher

The choice facing the nation is between two totally different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism and bring together men and women from all walks of life who share a belief in freedom.

— Margaret Thatcher

Peace, freedom and justice are only to be found where people are prepared to defend them.

— Margaret Thatcher

In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.

— Margaret Thatcher

A world without nuclear weapons may be a dream but you cannot base a sure defence on dreams. Without far greater trust and confidence between East and West than exists at present, a world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.

— Margaret Thatcher

You know, if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn't you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing!

— Margaret Thatcher

Human rights did not begin with the French Revolution...[they] really stem from a mixture of Judaism and Christianity...[we English] had 1688, our quiet revolution, where Parliament exerted its will over the King...it was not the sort of Revolution that France's was...'Liberty, equality, fraternity' – they forgot obligations and duties I think. And then of course the fraternity went missing for a long time.

— Margaret Thatcher

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.

— Margaret Thatcher

We do not want a united Germany. This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.

— Margaret Thatcher

We've beaten the Germans twice and now they're back!

— Margaret Thatcher

Today we are coming to realise that an epoch in history is over...For more than forty years that Iron Curtain remained in place. Few of us expected to see it lifted in our life-time. Yet with great suddenness the impossible has happened. Communism is broken, utterly broken...We do not see this new Soviet Union as an enemy, but as a country groping its way towards freedom. We no longer have to view the world through a prism of East-West relations. The Cold War is over.

— Margaret Thatcher

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air—the rather nauseating stench of appeasement.

— Margaret Thatcher

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 on us.

— Margaret Thatcher

The President of the Commission, M. Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No. No. No.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.

— Margaret Thatcher

I fight on, I fight to win.

— Margaret Thatcher

People on all levels of income are better off than they were in 1979. The hon. Gentleman is saying that he would rather that the poor were poorer, provided that the rich were less rich. That way one will never create the wealth for better social services. as we have. What a policy. Yes, he would rather have the poor poorer, provided that the rich were less rich. That is the Liberal policy.

— Margaret Thatcher

We're leaving Downing Street for the last time after eleven-and-a-half wonderful years, and we're very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here eleven and a half years ago.

— Margaret Thatcher

I like Mr. Gorbachev, we can do business together.

— Margaret Thatcher

When people are free to choose, they choose freedom.

— Margaret Thatcher

Our sovereignty does not come from Brussels—it is ours by right and by heritage.

— Margaret Thatcher

Member for Islwyn was going to have a single currency willy-nilly. He has already made up his mind. The argument that he uses is that, if others have it, we must. That is an argument for a flock of sheep, not for people who are sent here to analyse the problem and to use our minds and our reason to say which course we should follow.

— Margaret Thatcher

It is a great night. It is the end of Socialism.

— Margaret Thatcher

[It is a] killing field of the like of which I thought we would never see in Europe again [and is] not worthy of Europe, not worthy of the west and not worthy of the United States... This is happening in the heart of Europe and we have not done more to stop it. It is in Europe's sphere of influence. It should be in Europe's sphere of conscience... We are little more than an accomplice to massacre.

— Margaret Thatcher

Clear. Decisive. Purposeful.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am not sure what is meant by those who say that the Party should return to something called "One Nation Conservatism". As far as I can tell by their views on European federalism, such people's creed would be better described as "No Nation Conservatism".

— Margaret Thatcher

It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.

— Margaret Thatcher

The fightback begins now!

— Margaret Thatcher

We fly the British flag, not these awful things you are putting on tails.

— Margaret Thatcher

In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world.

— Margaret Thatcher

On my way here I passed a local cinema and it turns out you were expecting me after all, for the billboards read: The Mummy Returns.

— Margaret Thatcher

Tony Blair and New Labour. We forced our opponents to change their minds.

— Margaret Thatcher

For my part, I favour an approach to statecraft that embraces principles, as long as it is not stifled by them; and I prefer such principles to be accompanied by steel along with good intentions.

— Margaret Thatcher

We now know that bin Laden's terrorists had been planning their outrages for years. The propagation of their mad, bad ideology – decency forbids calling it a religion – had been taking place before our eyes. We were just too blind to see it. In short, the world had never ceased to be dangerous. But the West had ceased to be vigilant. Surely that is the most important lesson of this tragedy, and we must learn it if our civilisation is to survive.

— Margaret Thatcher

The habit of ubiquitous interventionism, combining pinprick strikes by precision weapons with pious invocations of high principle, would lead us into endless difficulties. Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.

— Margaret Thatcher

I should therefore prefer to restrict my guidelines to the following:

— Margaret Thatcher

The West as a whole in the early 1990s became obsessed with a 'peace dividend' that would be spent over and over again on any number of soft-hearted and sometimes soft-headed causes. Politicians forgot that the only real peace dividend is peace.

— Margaret Thatcher

Never believe that technology alone will allow America to prevail as a superpower.

— Margaret Thatcher

But if Saddam had been in a position credibly to threaten America or any of its allies – or the coalition's forces – with attack by missiles with nuclear warheads, would we have gone to the Gulf at all?

— Margaret Thatcher

For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other's good intentions.

— Margaret Thatcher

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

It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.

— Margaret Thatcher

Singapore's success shows us that:

— Margaret Thatcher

All corporatism – even when practised in societies where hard work, enterprise and cooperation are as highly valued as in Korea – encourages inflexibility, discourages individual accountability, and risks magnifying errors by concealing them.

— Margaret Thatcher

My father, more perceptive than many, wryly commented that by the time I was an adult there might not be an Indian Civil Service to enter. He turned out to be right. I had to settle for British politics instead.

— Margaret Thatcher

Patched-up diplomatic solutions designed to answer the needs of the moment rarely last, and as they unravel they can actually make things worse.

— Margaret Thatcher

North Korea desperately needed the foreign currency which this lethal trade could bring; its role as chief 'rogue' reinforced its prestige among anti-Western states, near and far; and it could also hope at the right moment to extort new instalments of Danegeld from America and her allies.

— Margaret Thatcher

Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.

— Margaret Thatcher

You only have to wade through a metric measure or two of European prose, culled from its directives, circulars, reports, communiqués or what pass as debates in its 'parliament', and you will quickly understand that Europe is, in truth, synonymous with bureaucracy – to which one might add 'to', 'from' and 'with' bureaucracy if one were so minded.

— Margaret Thatcher

What we should grasp, however, from the lessons of European history is that, first, there is nothing necessarily benevolent about programmes of European integration; second, the desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom; and third, European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy.

— Margaret Thatcher

Not that this appears to affect the intentions of the political-bureaucratic elite, which in Britain as elsewhere in Europe believes that it has an overriding mission to achieve European integration by hook or by crook and which is convinced that History (with an extra-large 'H') is on its side.

— Margaret Thatcher