Margaret Thatcher Quotations

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.

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

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

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

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The price of freedom is still, and always will be, eternal vigilance.

That nations that have gone for equality, like Communism, have neither freedom nor justice nor equality, they've the greatest inequalities of all, the privileges of the politicians are far greater compared with the ordinary folk than in any other country. The nations that have gone for freedom, justice and independence of people have still freedom and justice, and they have far more equality between their people, far more respect for each individual than the other nations. Go my way. You will get freedom and justice and much less difference between people than you do in the Soviet Union.

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.

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.

One only gets to the top rung of 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.''

must be allowed to return to his own country forthwith.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions - he had money too

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

If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I am very sorry for the forty-eight.

He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued,

Her guidance and advice are always most acute and as prime minister I was privileged to benefit from both enormously.

It is only when you look now and see success that you say that it was good fortune. It was not. We lost 250 of our best young men. I felt every one.

We have lost a great president and a great man, and I have lost a great friend,

Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing. There are no hills to go down unless you start from the top.

To Ronnie: Well done, thou good and faithful servant,

We didn't have to do the minuets of diplomacy. We got down to business.

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

This is not the first such Europe-wide attempt to bully national electorates.

It was sheer professionalism and inspiration and the fact that you really cannot have people marching into other people's territory and staying there.

The battle for women's rights has largely been won

I'm not quite sure of his place in history. History will determine that.

I'm extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.

I'm fine, I'm fine. I feel fine. The doctors assessed her this morning and say she is OK.

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

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

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

I don't mind how much my ministers talk - as long as they do what I say.

Business success isn't just a selfish aim. Profits spread beyond those who make them and bring jobs and prosperity.

You don't win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and making your message perfectly clear.

It is no exaggeration to describe plain English as a fundamental tool of government.

It's a funny old world.

All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. It must be business as usual.

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.

It's the Labour Government that have brought us record peacetime taxation. They've got the usual Socialist disease - they've run out of other people's money.

I never hugged him, I bombed him.

I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do. It won't rust. And, this time I hope, the head will stay on.

Their pitiless ideology only survives because it is maintained by force. But the day comes when the anger and frustration of the people is so great that force cannot contain it. Then the edifice cracks: the mortar crumbles.

We speak of peace, yes, but whose peace? Poland's? Bulgaria's? The peace of the grave?

If we are safe today, it is because America has stood with us. If we are to remain safe tomorrow, it will be because America remains powerful and self-confident. When, therefore, the Americans face difficulties, we need to say to them more clearly: We are with you.

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 that 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.

If you go into what I call a bubble boom, every bubble bursts.

One hopes to achieve the zero option, but in the absence of that we must achieve balanced numbers.

The battle for women's rights has largely been won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone forever. I hate those strident tones we hear from some Women's Libbers.

People constantly requesting government intervention are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.

Putting the World to Rights