The best Margaret Thatcher Quotes of all time:
I will not change just to court popularity.
Margaret Thatcher on Politics and Society
There are no personal sympathies in politics.
I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.
~1973 Interview
I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.
In politics, the unexpected happens.
I, personally, have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.
Being Prime Minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.
The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.
Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.
A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag.
Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.
A well ordered society would be one where the state only had a negative action, comparable to that of a rudder: a light pressure at the right moment to counteract the first suggestion of any loss of equilibrium.
We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.
Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.
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 mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for it’s noble past
Margaret Thatcher Quotes about The difference between Men and Powerful Women
Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.
If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
U-turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.
The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.
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.
The woman’s mission is not to enhance the masculine spirit, but to express the feminine; hers is not to preserve a man-made world, but to create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element into all of its activities.
It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.
I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.
Margaret Thatcher Quotes on Money and Economics
Pennies don’t fall from heaven – they have to be earned here on earth.
Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.
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 anest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.
It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
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.
You cannot have the dream of building up your own fortune by your own hopes, your own hands, and your own British guts.
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.
There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.
Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation.
You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructures.
Powerful Margaret Thatcher Quotes That Inspire
Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word.
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and importance, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.
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.
Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing. There are no hills to go down unless you start at the top.
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.
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.
One only gets to the top run of the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly all sorts of power, 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.”
If it’s me against 48, I feel sorry for the 48.
~when out voted at a world conference
If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.
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.
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 when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.
Other Great Margaret Thatcher Quotes
I’m not hard, I’m frightfully soft. But I will not be hounded.
The trouble with you, John, is that your spine does not reach your brain.
~to Conservative backbench MP John Whittingdale
To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.
Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
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.
I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.
It pays to know the enemy – not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.
Of course it’s the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.
I’m not a good butcher but I’ve had to learn to carve the joint. People expect a new look.
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.
The younger generation doesn’t want equality and regimentation, but opportunity to shape their world while showing compassion to those in real need.
Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
I will not change just to court popularity.
If you go into what I call a bubble room, every bubble bursts.
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 one the election.
I wasn’t lucky, I deserved it.
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