Here’s some of Margaret Thatcher’s most famous quotes and sayings from her time in politics and as UK Prime Minister.
Margaret Thatcher – Politician
Margaret Thatcher was a British Prime Minister who served from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the office and is considered to be one of the most influential British politicians of the 20th century.
Thatcher was also a divisive figure in British politics, with her supporters praising her as a champion of free markets and capitalism, while her critics denounced her as “The Iron Lady” for her uncompromising political style and policies.
Although as a political figure she is considered by many to be out of vogue, Thatcher’s quotations are still relevant today.
To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.
Best Margaret Thatcher Quotes
Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.
– Margaret Thatcher
Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
– 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
Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
– Margaret Thatcher
Do you know that 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.
– 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
When I’m out of politics I’m going to run a business, it’ll be called rent-a-spine
– Margaret Thatcher
If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman., Margaret Thatcher quotes on woman
– Margaret Thatcher
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
– 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
The first step in calculating which way to go is to find out where you are.
– Margaret Thatcher
The government has no money of its own. It’s all your money.
– Margaret Thatcher
The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition, are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long. . . . There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.
– Margaret Thatcher
The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.
– Margaret Thatcher
I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
– Margaret Thatcher
Individualism has come in for an enormous amount of criticism over the years. It still does. It is widely assumed to be synonymous with selfishness…But the main reason why so many people in power have always disliked individualism is because it is individualists who are ever keenest to prevent the abuse of authority.
– Margaret Thatcher
Quotes from Margaret Thatcher
Conservatives have excellent credentials to speak about human rights. By our efforts, and with precious little help from self-styled liberals, we were largely responsible for securing liberty for a substantial share of the world’s population and defending it for most of the rest.
– 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
Related: Hard Work Quotes
Socialism’s results have ranged between the merely shabby and the truly catastrophic – poverty, strife, oppression and, on the killing fields of communism, the deaths this century of perhaps 100 million people. Against that doctrine was set a contrary, conservative belief in a law-governed liberty. It was this view which triumphed with the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. Since then, the Left has sought rehabilitation by distancing itself from its past.
– Margaret Thatcher
In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
– 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
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
No great goal was ever easily achieved.
– Margaret Thatcher
No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic country than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect… To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.
– Margaret Thatcher
I’m happy as a dog with two dicks
– 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 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
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.
– Margaret Thatcher
Freedom is not synonymous with an easy life. … There are many difficult things about freedom: It does not give you safety, it creates moral dilemmas for you; it requires self-discipline; it imposes great responsibilities, but such is the nature of Man and in such consists his glory and salvation.
– Margaret Thatcher
Related: 175+ Discipline Quotes For Maximum Motivation
It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.
– Margaret Thatcher
Life’s greatest reward is life itself
– Margaret Thatcher
I started out in life with two great advantages: No money and good parents.
– Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher Sayings
Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.
– Margaret Thatcher
The price of freedom is still, and always will be, eternal vigilance.
– 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
Leadership is about having principles. A leader must have a vision and principles that will endure for all time and must always be true to these principles, applying them to changing circumstances, Margaret Thatcher quotes on leadership
– Margaret Thatcher
We will stand on principle or we will not stand at all.
– 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
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
– Margaret Thatcher
Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.
– 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
The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.
– Margaret Thatcher
If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.
– Margaret Thatcher
A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.
– Margaret Thatcher
I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.
– 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
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
When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help.
– Margaret Thatcher
Quotes by Margaret Thatcher
You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.
– 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
Communism produces neither dignity nor prosperity. It takes all power away from the people and places it in the hands of a self-appointed elite. And because it distorts and manipulates the distinctive talents of individuals rather than letting those talents flourish, it prevents progress and prosperity.
– Margaret Thatcher
You don’t win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and making your message perfectly clear.
– 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
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 is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
– Margaret Thatcher
I went to Oxford University – but I’ve never let that hold me back.
– Margaret Thatcher
Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.
– Margaret Thatcher
The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.
– Margaret Thatcher
Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay – that ‘someone else’ is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money., Margaret Thatcher quotes on money
– Margaret Thatcher
There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families., Margaret Thatcher quotes on society
– Margaret Thatcher
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.
– Margaret Thatcher
The desire to win is born in most of us. The will to win is a matter of training. The manner of winning is a matter of honour.
– Margaret Thatcher
Many of our troubles are due to the fact that our people turn to politicians for everything.
– Margaret Thatcher
To me consensus seems to be – the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no-one believes, but to which no-one objects – the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner I stand for consensus”?
– Margaret Thatcher
Quotes Margaret Thatcher
In a system of free trade and free markets poor countries – and poor people – are not poor because others are rich. Indeed, if others became less rich the poor would in all probability become still poorer.
– Margaret Thatcher
Marxists get up early to further their cause. We must get up even earlier to defend our freedom.
– 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 will accomplish nothing.
– Margaret Thatcher
When people are free to choose, they choose freedom.
– Margaret Thatcher
For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defense in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other’s good intentions.
– Margaret Thatcher
If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing.
– Margaret Thatcher
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.” ~ Margaret ThatcheEach generation has to stand up for democracy. It can’t take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew.
– Margaret Thatcher
Any leader has to have a certain amount of steel in them, so I am not that put out being called the Iron Lady.
– Margaret Thatcher
You cannot make an omelet without breaking some balls
– Margaret Thatcher
The Labour Party believes in turning workers against owners; we believe in turning workers into owners.
– Margaret Thatcher
Citizenship should be based on those who have a close and real relationship with this country and its inhabitants.
– Margaret Thatcher
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
– 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
Communist regimes were not some unfortunate aberration, some historical deviation from a socialist ideal. They were the ultimate expression, unconstrained by democratic and electoral pressures, of what socialism is all about. … In short, the state [is] everything and the individual nothing.
– 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
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
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