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Margaret Thatcher

347 quotes

• “[Thatcher] began by asking what benefits ordinary people had received after 3½ years of Socialism. The Government should do what any good housewife would do if money was short—look at their accounts and see what was wrong.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Don't be scared of the high language of economists and Cabinet ministers, but think of politics at our own household level. After all, women live in contact with food supplies, housing shortages, and the ever-decreasing opportunities for children, and we must therefore face up to the position, remembering that as more power is taken away from the people, so there is less responsibility for us to assume.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Bexley Conservative Women (15 September 1949)

• “It was not a Government that built up the skill and craft of this country...It was private individuals who patiently persevered, building up their businesses bit by bit...Their success provided employment for others and greatly benefited the community as a whole. This was the spirit that made England great and can restore her once again. Do you want it to perish for a soul-less Socialist system, or to live to recreate a glorious Britain?”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Article for Gravesend and Dartford Reporter (28 January 1950)

• “Every Conservative desires peace. The threat to peace comes from Communism, which has powerful forces ready to attack anywhere. Communism waits for weakness, it leaves strength alone. Britain therefore must be strong, strong in arms, and strong in faith in her own way of life. The greatest hope for peace lies in friendship and co-operation with the United States of America.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 1951 General Election Address (8 October 1951)

• “In considering our traditional ties with the Commonwealth we should remember that it now differs greatly from the entity which existed 20 or 30 years ago. Many of us do not feel quite the same allegiance to Archbishop Makarios or Doctor Nkrumah or to people like Jomo Kenyatta as we do towards Mr. Menzies of Australia.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Finchley Conservatives (14 August 1961)

• “I don’t like the idea of Europe without us there, directing and guiding its powers.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: (1963)

• “In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to members of the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds, delivered at the Royal Albert Hall (May 20, 1965) ; as quoted in Why Women Should Rule the World, HarperCollins (2008), Dee Dee Myers, p. 227 : , 978006114…

• “It is good to recall how our freedom has been gained in this country—not by great abstract campaigns but through the objections of ordinary men and women to having their money taken from them by the State. In the early days, people banded together and said to the then Government, “You shall not take our money before you have redressed our grievances”. It was their money, their wealth, which was the source of their independence against the Government.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference (20 October 1967)

• “Our freedoms depended on our having independence, independence in the wage packet, and independence of the Government...If you rely always on a Government for your wage packet, then the source of your independence to fight that Government has gone...Already one person in four works in the public sector. This is more than enough, and we must stop the encroachment from going any further.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference (20 October 1967)

• “The...philosophical reason for which we are against nationalisation and for private enterprise is because we believe that economic progress comes from the inventiveness, ability, determination and the pioneering spirit of extraordinary men and women. If they cannot exercise that spirit here, they will go away to another free enterprise country which will then make more economic progress than we do. We ought, in fact, to be encouraging small firms and small companies, because the extent to which innovation comes through these companies is tremendous.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference (20 October 1967)

• “One of the effects of the rapid spread of higher education has been to equip people to criticise and question almost everything. Some of them seem to have stopped there instead of going on to the next stage which is to arrive at new beliefs or to reaffirm old ones. You will perhaps remember seeing in the press the report that the student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit has been awarded a degree on the result of his past work. His examiners said that he had posed a series of most intelligent questions. Significant? I would have been happier had he also found a series of intelligent answers.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Conservative Political Centre Lecture (11 October 1968)

• “I started life with two great advantages: no money, and good parents.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On a 1971 TV interview, when asked if she understands ordinary people's problems.

• “I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Val meets the V.I.P.s, BBC Television (5 March 1973)

• “Parents can best exert influence through local authorities”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If you really don't like it, and if your child isn't progressing, have a word with the head teacher. And if you're still not satisfied, or feel that you want your child to go to a school with a different kind of philosophy and approach—the only thing is to approach your education authority and have him transferred to another school, though an extra change of school is not always good for a child”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As the Minister of Education "MRS THATCHER CALLS UP PARENT POWER" (April 8, 1973)

• “I wish I could say that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done himself less than justice. Unfortunately, I can only say that I believe he has done himself justice. Some Chancellors are macro-economic. Other Chancellors are fiscal. This one is just plain cheap.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Denis Healey, in a remark in the House of Commons (22 January 1975)

• “I was attacked for fighting a rearguard action in defence of “middle-class interests.”...Well, if “middle class values” include the encouragement of variety and individual choice, the provision of fair incentives and rewards for skill and hard work, the maintenance of effective barriers against the excessive power of the State and a belief in the wide distribution of individual private property, then they are certainly what I am trying to defend. This is not a fight for “privilege”; it is a fight for freedom—freedom for every citizen.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Article for Daily Telegraph ("My Kind of Tory Party") (30 January 1975)

• “If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Article for Daily Telegraph ("My Kind of Tory Party") (30 January 1975)

• “This is not a confrontation between ‘left’ and ‘right’. I am trying to represent the deep feelings of those many thousands of rank-and-file Tories in the country—and potential Conservative voters, too—who feel let down by our party and find themselves unrepresented in a political vacuum.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Finchley (31 January 1975)

• “Our challenge is to create the kind of economic background which enables private initiative and private enterprise to flourish for the benefit of the consumer, employee, the pensioner, and society as a whole...I believe we should judge people on merit and not on background. I believe the person who is prepared to work hardest should get the greatest rewards and keep them after tax. That we should back the workers and not the shirkers: that it is not only permissible but praiseworthy to want to benefit your own family by your own efforts”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech at Young Conservative Conference (8 February 1975)

• “This Party of ours has been on the defensive for too long. The time has come to counter-attack...The intellectual counter-attack is as important as the counter-attack in Parliament and in the constituencies. If we can win the battle of ideas, then the war will already be half-won.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Federation of Conservative Students Conference (24 March 1975)

• “I shall never stop fighting. I mean this country to survive, to prosper and to be free...I haven't fought the destructive forces of socialism for more than twenty years in order to stop now, when the critical phase of the struggle is upon us.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Federation of Conservative Students Conference (24 March 1975)

• “This is what we believe.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Remarks on The Constitution of Liberty by F. A. Hayek during a visit to the Conservative Research Department (summer 1975), quoted in John Ranelagh, Thatcher's People (London: HarperCollins, 1991), p. ix.

• “Detente sounds a fine word. And, to the extent that there really has been a relaxation in international tension, it is a fine thing. But the fact remains that throughout this decade of detente, the armed forces of the Soviet Union have increased, are increasing, and show no signs of diminishing.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Chelsea Conservative Association (26 July 1975)

• “I am all for the spirit behind this, for easier contacts and the freer movement of people. I am for détente—who is not? I am also for attente, for wanting to see results; for not letting down our guard; for keeping our powder dry. Let them show us that they will practise what they preach, about reducing the threat of war, about non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Pilgrims of the United States (16 September 1975) regarding the Soviet Union

• “And I will go on criticising Socialism, and opposing Socialism because it is bad for Britain – and Britain and Socialism are not the same thing...It's the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual Socialist disease – they’ve run out of other people's money.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1975)

• “I sometimes think the Labour Party is like a pub where the mild is running out. If someone doesn't do something soon, all that's left will be bitter. (Laughter). And all that's bitter will be Left.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1975)

• “Let me give you my vision. A man's right to work as he will to spend what he earns to own property to have the State as servant and not as master these are the British inheritance. They are the essence of a free economy. And on that freedom all our other freedoms depend.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1975)

• “Some Socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a State computer. We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else, however much the Socialists may pretend otherwise. We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1975)

• “We are fighting a major internal war against terrorism in Northern Ireland, and need more troops in order to win it.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech at Kensington Town Hall ("Britain Awake") (19 January 1976)

• “I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown. (Laughter, Applause), my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved (Laughter), the Iron Lady of the Western world.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Finchley Conservatives (31 January 1976)

• “The Socialists tell us that there are massive profits in a particular industry and they should not go to the shareholders—but that the public should reap the benefits. Benefits? What benefits? When you take into public ownership a profitable industry, the profits soon disappear. The goose that laid the golden eggs goes broody. State geese are not great layers. The steel industry was nationalised some years ago in the public interest—yet the only interest now left to the public is in witnessing the depressing spectacle of their money going down the drain at a rate of a million pounds a day.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Finchley Conservatives (31 January 1976)

• “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: TV interview for Thames TV This Week (5 February 1976)

• “We know what we want to do as a Conservative Party. There are two ways to run a country. One is towards Socialist Marxism and the other is to a free society. The more you have nationalisation and the more the State takes choice away from the people, the further you are going to the total Socialist Marxist society. The more you do that, the more you relinquish your freedom and income to the State.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Taunton Conservatives (20 February 1976)

• “There is no such thing as “safe” Socialism. If it's safe, it's not Socialism. And if it's Socialism, it's not safe. The signposts of Socialism point downhill to less freedom, less prosperity, downhill to more muddle, more failure. If we follow them to their destination, they will lead this nation into bankruptcy.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Central Council ("The Historic Choice") (20 March 1976)

• “Our aim is not just to remove our uniquely incompetent Government from office—it is to destroy the socialist fallacies—indeed the whole fallacy of socialism—that the Labour Party exists to spread.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Junior Carlton Club Political Council (4 May 1976)

• “In some European countries, we now see Communist parties dressed in democratic clothes and speaking with soft voices. Of course we hope that their oft-proclaimed change of heart is genuine. But every child in Europe knows the story of little Red Riding Hood and what happened to her in her grandmother's cottage in the forest. Despite the new look of these Communist parties, despite the softness of their voices, we should be on the watch for the teeth and the appetite of the wolf.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Christian Democratic Union Conference (25 May 1976)

• “I call the Conservative Party now to a crusade. Not only the Conservative Party. I appeal to all those men and women of goodwill who do not want a Marxist future for themselves or their children or their children's children. This is not just a fight about national solvency. It is a fight about the very foundations of the social order. It is a crusade not merely to put a temporary brake on Socialism, but to stop its onward march once and for all.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference (8 October 1976)

• “The word “equality” is often used, but, wisely, rarely defined. The moment one tries to define it, one gets into great difficulty. For example, it cannot mean equality of incomes or earnings; otherwise, we would not need more than one union. Indeed, we would not need one union. If we are to have opportunity, we cannot have equality, because the two are opposite. We may have equality of opportunity, but if the only opportunity is to be equal, it is not opportunity.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (24 November 1976)

• “To me there is only one way to judge a person, whatever his background, whatever his colour, whatever his religion, and that is what that person is, and not by his race or creed. That is what I believe in, that is what I will tell everyone and that is what I try to achieve everything.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Young Conservative Conference in Eastbourne (13 February 1977), quoted in The Times (14 February 1977), p. 3

• “Instead of a government with steel in its backbone, we've got one with Steel in its pocket.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1977). The Labour government had entered into a Pact with the Liberal leader David Steel.

• “People from my sort of background needed Grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1977)

• “My job is to stop Britain from going red.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to Institute of Public Relations (2 November 1977)

• “Madame Chairman, I presume this is to sweep Britain clean of socialism”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I hate extremes of any kind. Communism and the National Front both seek the domination of the state over the individual. They both, I believe crush the right of the individual. To me, therefore, they are parties of a similar kind. All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument... The National Front is a Socialist Front.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Interview for Hornsey Journal (21 April 1978)

• “No, I'm not a feminist...I think they've become too strident. I think they have done great damage to the cause of women by making us out to be something we are not. Each person is different. Each has their own talents and abilities, and these are the things you want to draw and bring out. You don't say: “I must get on because I'm a woman, or that I must get on because I'm a man”. You should say that you should get on because you have the combination of talents which are right for the job. The moment you exaggerate the question, you defeat your case.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Interview for Hornsey Journal (21 April 1978)

• “Marxists get up early in the morning to further their cause. We must get up even earlier to defend our freedom.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Article for Hamburger Abendblatt (13 May 1978)

• “The only way to do the best you can is to work as hard as you can.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If the past is any guide, what has happened this winter could happen again next winter and the winter after that and so on and so on. What we face is a threat to our whole way of life...The case is now surely overwhelming, there will be no solution to our difficulties which does not include some restriction on the power of the unions.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Conservative Party television broadcast “Winter of Discontent” (17 January 1979)

• “We shall have to learn again to be one nation, or one day we shall be no nation.”

  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Conservative Party television broadcast “Winter of Discontent” (17 January 1979)

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