Margaret Thatcher Quotes & Sayings

We weren't getting a fair deal on the budget and I wasn't going to have it. There's a great strand of equity and fairness in the British people - this is our characteristic. There's not a strand of equity and fairness in Europe - they're out to get as much as they can. That's one of those enormous differences. So I tackled it on that basis. — Margaret Thatcher

I will not stagger from expedient to expedient. — Margaret Thatcher

I owe nothing to Women's Lib. — 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

Major international interventions are doomed unless the US is directly or indirectly involved. But if American politicians, officials and servicemen are to be put at risk of arrest and prosecution, the United States will be most reluctant to act in order to curb aggression or prevent genocide. So the effect of the court may well be to diminish, not increase, the numbers of (in the words of the UN Secretary General) 'innocents of distant wars and conflicts'. — Margaret Thatcher

Tyranny must not prevail. — Margaret Thatcher

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

Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word. — Margaret Thatcher

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

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends. — Margaret Thatcher

As prime minister, I worked closely with Ronald Reagan for eight of the most important years of all our lives. We talked regularly both before and after his presidency. And I have had time and cause to reflect on what made him a great president. — Margaret Thatcher

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

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

I went to Oxford University - but I've never let that hold me back. — Margaret Thatcher

The lesson is clear. Inflation devalues us all. — Margaret Thatcher

Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly. — Margaret Thatcher

Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become your character. And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that ... and I think I am fine. — Margaret Thatcher

Don't Cry For Me, Argentina — Margaret Thatcher

It is recorded how towards the end of the eighteenth century a Muslim visitor to England was taken to see the House of Commons at work. He later wrote of his astonishment at finding the that the British Parliament actually made laws and fixed punishments for their infraction - because unlike Muslims the English had not accepted a divine law revealed from heaven and therefore had to resort to such unsatisfactory expedients. Muslims still understand the expression 'the rule of law' very differently than do most Westerners. — Margaret Thatcher

Of course, to be a mother and a housewife is a vocation of a very high kind. But I simply felt that it was not the whole of my vocation. I knew that I also wanted a career. A phrase that Irene Ward, MP for Tynemouth, and I often used was that 'while the home must always be the centre of one's life, it should not be the boundary of one's ambitions'. — Margaret Thatcher

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

Life's greatest reward is life itself — Margaret Thatcher

If you have a sense of purpose and a sense of direction, I believe people will follow you. Democracy isn't just about deducing what the people want. Democracy is leading the people as well. — Margaret Thatcher

When will Labour learn that you cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels. — Margaret Thatcher

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

The desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom — Margaret Thatcher

There are too many people who imagine that there is something sophisticated about always believing the best of those who hate your country, and the worst of those who defend it. — Margaret Thatcher

They [Federalist European Politicians] divide their time between court room, prison and debating chamber - giving a whole new meaning to the term 'conviction politician'. — Margaret Thatcher

Women have plenty of roles in which they can serve with distinction: some of us even run countries. But generally we are better at wielding the handbag than the bayonet. — Margaret Thatcher

Today I have lost one of my dearest friends, England one of her greatest men. Keith Joseph understood that it was necessary to win again the intellectual argument for freedom, and that to do this we must start from first principles. He was in many ways an unlikely revolutionary. For all his towering intellect, he was deeply humble. He spoke out boldly, however hostile the audience. Yet he hated to give offence. Above all, his integrity shone out in everything he said and did. His best memorial lies in the younger generations of politicians whom he inspired. But for me he is irreplaceable. — Margaret Thatcher

I am not a compromiser on fundamentals. — 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

Never in the history of human credit has so much been owed. — Margaret Thatcher

I had the patriotic conviction that, given great leadership of the sort I heard from Winston Churchill in the radio broadcasts to which we listened, there was almost nothing that the British people could not do. — Margaret Thatcher

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

Economics are the method; the object is to change the soul. — Margaret Thatcher

[On Ronald Reagan:] Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears. — Margaret Thatcher

The first step in calculating which way to go is to find out where you are. — Margaret Thatcher

We shall take whatever action is necessary to contain the growth of the money supply. The government, unlike so many of its predecessors, will face up to economic realities. — Margaret Thatcher

The Labour Party believes in turning workers against owners; we believe in turning workers into owners. — Margaret Thatcher

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. — Margaret Thatcher

The United States is contributing massively to the defence of Europe and we should be very grateful. — Margaret Thatcher

We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty. — Margaret Thatcher

If you are guided by opinion polls, you are not practicing leadership
you are practicing followership. — Margaret Thatcher

While the Soviet Union has imposed its rule on its neighbours and drawn an iron curtain between east and west, we in Great Britain have given freedom and independence to more than forty-eight countries whose populations now number more than a thousand million - a quarter of the world's total. — Margaret Thatcher

If it's me against 48, I feel sorry for the 48. — Margaret Thatcher

Personal abuse is no substitute for policy. It signals panic. — Margaret Thatcher

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

It had the effect of cementing the Anglo-American alliance. What's the good of having bases if when you want to use them you're not allowed to by the home country. It made America realise that Britain was her real and true friend, when they were hard up against it and wanted something, and that no one else in Europe was. They're a weak lot, some of them in Europe you know. Weak. Feeble. — Margaret Thatcher

I believe our way of life is infinitely superior for every human being than any which the Communist creed can offer. — Margaret Thatcher

Any attempts by any government to change Community legislation to its own wishes are doomed to failure following the extension of policy areas now subject to majority voting ... In our opinion, this must have serious implications for the traditional view of Parliament as a legislative body sovereignty. — Margaret Thatcher

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

When we hear (as we sometimes do) that (Russia's) economic output is about half the level of a decade ago or that real incomes have fallen sharply, it is worth recalling that economic statistics under the Soviet Union were hardly more reliable than any other official statements. Moreover, a country that produces what no one wants to buy, and whose workers receive wages that they cannot use to buy goods they want, is hardly in the best of economic health. — 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

When government does its job properly people are free to do theirs. — Margaret Thatcher

The secret of happiness is to live within your income and pay your bills on time. — Margaret Thatcher

From my experience let me say this: in today's world it is no bad thing for a politician to have had the benefit of a scientific background. And not only politicians. Those who work in industry, in commerce, in investment. Indeed, so important has it become that I believe we are right to make science a compulsory subject for all schoolchildren. — Margaret Thatcher

It is absolutely right that President Reagan considers SDI and thank goodness people considered nuclear research before the last war. — Margaret Thatcher

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

We must remember our duty to Nature before it is too late. That duty is constant. It is never completed. It lives on as we breathe. It endures as we eat and sleep, work and rest, as we are born and as we pass away. The duty to Nature will remain long after our own endeavors have brought peace to the Middle East. It will weigh on our shoulders for as long as we wish to dwell on a living and thriving planet, and hand it on to our children and theirs. — Margaret Thatcher

Well, there's a lot to react against![in response to the accusation that she was a reactionary] — Margaret Thatcher

My first guiding principle is this: willing and active co-operation between independent sovereign states. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality. — Margaret Thatcher

I do not understand the unilateralists. If they hated nuclear weapons as much as I do they would want them down in the world as a whole. I am the true disarmer, I keep peace and freedom and justice with it. — Margaret Thatcher

Many of our troubles are due to the fact that our people turn to politicians for everything. — Margaret Thatcher

As a motive for terror, religion has more often than not required a good deal of lubrication by lucre. — Margaret Thatcher

Our judgement is that the presence of the Royal Marines garrison is sufficient deterrent against any possible aggression. — Margaret Thatcher

Whether at home or abroad, the task of statesman is to work with human nature warts and all, and to draw on instincts and even prejudices that can be turned to good purpose. It is never to try to recreate Mankind in a new image. — 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

Ronald Reagan knew his own mind. He had firm principles - and, I believe, right ones. He expounded them clearly, he acted upon them decisively. — Margaret Thatcher

The accumulation of wealth is a process which is of itself morally neutral. True, as Christianity teaches, riches bring temptations. But then so does poverty. — Margaret Thatcher

I have made it quite clear that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was a confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out-that is a derogation of sovereignty. — 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

What? What am I 'bound to be feeling?' People don't think anymore. They feel. 'How are you feeling? No, I don't feel comfortable. I'm sorry, we as a group we're feeling ... .' One of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas. That interests me. Ask me what I'm thinking. — Margaret Thatcher

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus. — Margaret Thatcher

The election of a man committed to the cause of freedom and the renewal of America's strength has given encouragement to all those who love liberty. — Margaret Thatcher

Everything a politician promises at election time has to be paid for either by higher taxation or by borrowing. — Margaret Thatcher

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. — Margaret Thatcher

Failure? The possibilities do not exist. — Margaret Thatcher

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

Peace is hard work and we must not allow people to forget it. — Margaret Thatcher

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

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

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. — Margaret Thatcher

When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty. — Margaret Thatcher

There are forces more powerful and pervasive than the apparatus of war. You may chain a man, but you cannot chain his mind. You may enslave him, but you will not conquer his spirit. In every decade since the war Soviet leaders have been reminded that their pitiless ideology only survives because it is maintained by force. But the day will come when the anger and frustration of the people is so great that force cannot contain it. Then the edifice cracks; the mortar crumbles; one day, liberty will dawn on the other side of the wall. — Margaret Thatcher

(A unified) 'Europe' is the result of plans. It is, in fact, a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure: only the scale of the final damage done is in doubt. — Margaret Thatcher

There is nothing inevitable about rising unemployment. — Margaret Thatcher

When you've spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it's exciting to have a real crisis on your hands. — Margaret Thatcher

But the whole history of America is quite different from Europe. People went there to get away from the intolerance and constraints of life in Europe. They sought liberty and opportunity; and their strong sense of purpose has over two centuries, helped create a new unity and pride in being American. — Margaret Thatcher

Dictators can be deterred, they can be crushed-but they can never be appeased. — Margaret Thatcher

Naturally, it is with some temerity that the pupil speaks before the master, because you know more about the Common Market than anybody. — Margaret Thatcher

First you win the argument, then you win the vote. — Margaret Thatcher

There are some remarkable parallels between basketball and politics. Michael Jordan has already mastered the skill most needed for political success: how to stay aloft without visible means of support. — Margaret Thatcher

They might have beaten us at our national sport, but we managed to beat them at their national sport twice in the 20th century. [Replying to Kenneth Clarke, who said, "Isn't it terrible about losing to the Germans at our national sport?" when England lost to Germany in the 1990 FIFA World Cup Semi-final.] — 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

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

We went back on a very similar manifesto to things I believe in. The difference is that after eighteen months to two years he did the biggest U-turn on policy of all time and started to go the wrong way. In the end, that cost us the next election. — Margaret Thatcher

[M]ore than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything - security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism. — Margaret Thatcher

You want to keep more of the money you earn? I'm afraid that's very selfish. We shall want to tax that away. You want to own shares in your firm? We can't have that. The state has to own your firm. You want to choose where to send your children to school? That's very divisive. You'll send your child where we tell you. — 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