Margaret Thatcher quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Margaret Thatcher on Wise Famous Quotes.

Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.

Personal abuse is no substitute for policy. It signals panic.

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

Consensus is the absence of leadership.

The Government wants a peaceful settlement. But we totally reject a peaceful sell-out.

When you stop a dictator, there are always risks. But there are greater risks in not stopping a dictator.

Misgovernment ... will often be reflected in oppressive or aggressive policies towards groups within the state or towards the state's neighbours.

We do not achieve happiness or salvation in isolation from each other but as members of society

I can't bear Britain in decline. I just can't.

I am not hard - I'm frightfully soft. But I will not be hounded

There is nothing inevitable about rising unemployment.

Any leader has to have a certain amount of steel in them, so I am not that put out being called the Iron Lady.

I calculate that I was responsible for proposing the elevation to the Lords of some 214 of its present numbers.

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

There are no personal sympathies in politics.

Occupied Falklands are the thorn in my balls

Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.

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

No Western nation has to build a wall round itself to keep its people in.

I hate feminism. It is poison,

Advisers advise, and ministers decide.

If your only opportunity is to be equal then it is not opportunity.

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

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.

When people are free to choose, they choose freedom

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

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

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

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

The patronage state is an arrogant state. It assumes it can spend your money better than you do. Yet it expects you to work for it in the first place.

[When asked how it felt to be a female prime minister:] I don't know: I've never experienced the alternative.

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

Hope is no basis for a defense policy.

I've learned one thing in politics. You don't take a decision until you have to.

Good Conservatives always pay their bills. And on time. Not like the Socialists who run up other people's bills.

If there is one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure, it was my policy on German reunification.

The application of collective guilt, running from one generation to another, is a dangerous doctrine which would leave few modern nations unscathed.

Life in a free society ... is heaven on earth to life in a socialist society such as Russia.

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

All the general propositions favouring freedom I had .. imbibed at my father's knee or acquired by candle-end reading of Burke and Hayek ...

I owe nothing to Women's Lib.

That is what capitalism is: a system that brings wealth to the many, not just the few.

I have never knowingly made a non-controversial speech in my life.

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

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.

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

Wars are not caused by the buildup of weapons. They are caused when an aggressor believes he can achieve his objectives at an acceptable price.

Being powerful is a lot like being a woman: If you have to tell someone that you are, invariably, you are not.

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

I can cope with nine of them, so they ought to be able to stand one of me. They could end the tiresomeness and stubbornness by giving me what I want.

Bribing regimes to comply with requirements which they should have acknowledged in the first place is not a process that appeals to me.

Most women are far more intelligent than people give them credit for.

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

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

I'll stay until I'm tired of it. So long as Britain needs me, I shall never be tired of it.

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

Let our children grow tall and some taller than others if they have it in them to do so.

No great goal was ever easily achieved.

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

You know the critical thing with the Communist countries is Communism, which by definition consists of control by the government.

You can't buck the market.

You can't lead from the crowd.

Those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians.

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

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

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

The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.

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

I am always on the job.

Working hard may not make you rich, but it should make you successful.

Give me six men and true, and I will get policies through.

People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.

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

We are very fortunate to have someone else's weapons stationed on our soil, to fight those targeted on us.

First you win the argument, then you win the vote.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

Inflation is the parent of unemployment and the unseen robber of those who have saved.

(Not) even the US can impose peace: it has to be genuinely accepted by both parties involved.

I was asked whether I was trying to restore Victorian values. I said straight out I was. And I am.

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

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

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

A quick cure is a quack cure.

How thin is the crust of order over the fires of human appetite and the lust for naked power.

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

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

A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure,

Let us, then, draw together in the name, not of jingoism, but of justice

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.

It is your tax which pays for public spending. The government have no money of their own. There is only taxpayers' money.

Socialism is in no way a curate's egg

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.

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

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

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

Political success is a good deal pleasanter than political failure, but it too brings its problems.

Citizenship should be based on those who have a close and real relationship with this country and its inhabitants.

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

A leader is someone who knows what they want to achieve and can communicate that.

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