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Margaret Thatcher Quotes
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Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to have been appointed. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

A research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his Conservative government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.

On moving into 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation , flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and increasing unemployment, until victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her decisive re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt in 1984.

Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge was widely unpopular, and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013 she died of a stroke in London at the age of 87. Always a controversial figure, she has nonetheless been lauded as one of the greatest, most influential and widest-known politicians in British history, even as arguments over Thatcherism persist.

✵ 13. October 1925 – 8. April 2013   •   Other names Margaret Thatcherová, Margaret Hilda Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher photo
Margaret Thatcher: 348   quotes 74   likes

Margaret Thatcher Quotes

“The battle for women's rights has been largely won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone for ever. And I hope they are. I hated those strident tones that you still hear from some Women's Libbers.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech on Women in a changing World (26 July 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105007
First term as Prime Minister

Women , Hate , Hope

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (20 October 1967) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101586
Backbench MP

Women , Men , Money , People

“Margaret Thatcher: …The first eleven and a half years have not been so bad – and with regard to a twilight, please remember that there are 24 hours in a day.”

Margaret Thatcher

House of Commons statement on the CSCE Summit (21 November, 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108253
Third term as Prime Minister

“Many senior policemen put greater emphasis on maintaining 'order' than on upholding the law. In practice that meant failing to uphold the rights of individuals against the rule of the mob.”

Margaret Thatcher

The Path To Power (1995)

Law

“We do not want a united Germany. This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.”

Margaret Thatcher

Talking to Mikhail Gorbachev at a luncheon meeting in Moscow in September 1989 https://web.archive.org/web/20170524105058/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/How-Margaret-Thatcher-pleaded-with-Gorbachev-not-to-let-the-Berlin-Wall-fall-out-of-london/article16514846.ece
Third term as Prime Minister

Change

“Every political debate these days contains a lot about economic policies. So much so that sometimes I think people get a little tired of hearing about them. Naturally there is a cry that Government must put people before economics. Who could disagree? That is the very reason why we in our Party have constantly fought Marxism and Communism. Fought Marxism because of —its compulsory society —its nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange. —its attempt to snuff out individual conscience. —the absence of the great voluntary societies which are so much a part of our way of life. —its denial of freedom to choose —its elevation of the values of the State above those of religion. Its denial of the right to educate children outside the state system. —its extinction of private property because property rights support human rights.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Women’s Conference (20 May 1981) https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104653
First term as Prime Minister

Life , Children , People , Education

“In a decision of the utmost gravity, Labour voted to give up Britain's independent nuclear deterrent unilaterally. Labour's defence policy—though "defence" is scarcely the word—is an absolute break with the defence policy of every British Government since the Second World War. Let there be no doubt about the gravity of that decision. You cannot be a loyal member of NATO while disavowing its fundamental strategy. A Labour Britain would be a neutralist Britain. It would be the greatest gain for the Soviet Union in forty years. And they would have got it without firing a shot.”

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106498
Second term as Prime Minister

War , World , Decision

“I can't help reflecting that it's taken a Government headed by a housewife with experience of running a family to balance the books for the first time in twenty years—with a little left over for a rainy day.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Women's Conference (25 May 1988) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107248
Third term as Prime Minister

Books , Family , Time , Help

“A world without nuclear weapons may be a dream but you cannot base a sure defence on dreams. Without far greater trust and confidence between East and West than exists at present, a world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech at a Soviet Official banquet http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106776, St George's Halls, the Kremlin (30 March 1987)
Second term as Prime Minister

World , Dreams , Confidence

“I do not believe that history is writ clear and unchallengeable. It doesn't just happen. History is made by people: its movement depends on small currents as well as great tides, on ideas, perceptions, will and courage, the ability to sense a trend, the will to act on understanding and intuition. It is up to us to give intellectual content and political direction to these new dissatisfactions with socialism in practice, with its material and moral failures, we must convert disillusion into understanding. If we fail, the tide will be lost. But if it is taken, the last quarter of our century can initiate a new renaissance matching anything in our island's long and outstanding history.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the Zurich Economic Society “The New Renaissance” (14 March 1977) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103336
Leader of the Opposition

People , History , Idea , Failure

“I think it is a great day for freedom. I watched the scenes on television last night and again this morning because I felt one ought not only hear about them but see them because you see the joy on people's faces and you see what freedom means to them; it makes you realise that you cannot stifle or suppress people's desire for liberty and so I watched with the same joy as everyone else and I hope that they will be a prelude to the Berlin Wall coming down.”

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks on the Berlin Wall (10 November 1989) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107819
Third term as Prime Minister

People , Hope , Thinking , Freedom

“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

Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1977) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103443
Leader of the Opposition

Children , People , School , Home

“When you stop selecting by ability you have to select according to some other inevitably less satisfactory criterion.”

Margaret Thatcher

The Path To Power (1995)

“There is nothing new or unusual about the Tory commitment to protect the environment. The last thing we want is to leave environmental debts for our children to clear up…It's we Conservatives who are not merely friends of the Earth—we are its guardians and trustees for generations to come. The core of Tory philosophy and for the case for protecting the environment are the same. No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy—with a full repairing lease. This Government intends to meet the terms of that lease in full.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1988) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107352
Third term as Prime Minister

Life , Children

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

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, at a Tory party conference, holding a brush. (date unknown)
Leader of the Opposition

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

Margaret Thatcher

On Val meets the V.I.P.s, BBC Television (5 March 1973) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=101992
Education Secretary

Thinking

“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

Interview for Hornsey Journal (21 April 1978) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=103662
Leader of the Opposition

Women , Question , Thinking , Drawing

“But freedom without law is freedom only for the strong at the expense of the weak. Freedom without law is therefore no freedom, but rather anarchy or tyranny. Law is the bond of all civil society. We are not asking a favour of a man when we ask him to obey the law. Obedience of the rule of law is necessary for the continuance of liberty itself. Doubtless you will point out that laws have not always been just—indeed they have been very unjust. In South Africa that certainly has been the case. Thankfully, that is now being remedied. And alongside that, democracy has yet to be achieved.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in South Africa (20 May 1991) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108268
Post-Prime Ministerial

Law , Democracy , Freedom , Strong

“The right hon. Gentleman [Neil Kinnock] leads a party which claims to support democracy but repudiates those miners who have voted democratically to remain at work and have done so in accordance with their union procedures. He leads a party which condemns violence in general but supports the mass picketing which inevitably ends in violence. He leads a party which has allied itself to the wreckers against the workers. The forces to which the right hon. Gentleman has lent his voice and support have no more love for parliamentary democracy than for the jobs and homes of those who oppose them. Sooner or later, when he has ceased to be of value to their purpose, they will turn on him, just as surely as they have turned on the police, on the steel workers, and on working miners and their families. There is only one word to describe the policy of the right hon. Gentleman when faced with threats, whether from home or abroad, and that word is appeasement. He will live to regret it. It is no policy for Britain.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (31 July 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105732 on the Labour Party and the Miners' Strike
Second term as Prime Minister

Love , Family , Democracy , Home

“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 book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 327

History , Freedom , Happiness

“It would seem that dead hunger strikers, who have extinguished their own lives, are of more use to PIRA than living members. Such is their calculated cynicism. This Government is not prepared to legitimise their cause by word or by deed. And we should be clear what that cause is. It is a dictatorship by force and by fear in Northern Ireland, and in the Republic. These men deny democracy everywhere; they seek power for themselves. Some people argue that the Government could make the problem go away. We can of course maintain and improve an already humane prison regime. But there is no point in pretending that this is what the PIRA want. They have remained inflexible and intransigent in the face of all that we have done because what they want is special treatment, treatment different from that received by other prisoners. They want their violence justified. It isn't, and it will not be.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech at Stormont Castle (28 May 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104657 regarding the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
First term as Prime Minister

Men , Hunger , People , Fear

“We fought to show that aggression does not pay and that the robber cannot be allowed to get away with his swag. We fought with the support of so many throughout the world: the Security Council, the Commonwealth, the European Community, and the United States. Yet we also fought alone – for we fought for our own sovereign territory.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Rally at Cheltenham (3 July 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104989, regarding the Falkland Islands War.
First term as Prime Minister

World , Communication , Support

“Patched-up diplomatic solutions designed to answer the needs of the moment rarely last, and as they unravel they can actually make things worse.”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 203

“Let me make one point about the hunger strike in the Maze prison. I want this to be utterly clear. There can be no political justification for murder or any other crime. The Government will never concede political status to the hunger strikers, or to any others convicted of criminal offences in the Province.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (20 November 1980) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104446 regarding the Irish hunger strike
First term as Prime Minister

Hunger

“The West as a whole in the early 1990s became obsessed with a 'peace dividend' that would be spent over and over again on any number of soft-hearted and sometimes soft-headed causes. Politicians forgot that the only real peace dividend is peace.”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 40

Peace , Heart

“We must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the American Bar Association (15 July 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106096.
See Linda Smith for an amusing variant.
Second term as Prime Minister

Way , Dependency

“We will not take money in taxes from those who work hard and pay it out to those who don't. We are trying to roll back the tide of Socialism. We must get ‘stuck in’ and sort out our problems in our traditional British way instead of asking the Government to intervene every time. Intervening means taking from people who work jolly hard and just manage to live within their means and make a profit, money in extra tax to pay for those who don't.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Finchley Conservatives ("We are trying to roll back the tide of Socialism") (26 January 1980) https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104297
First term as Prime Minister

Money , People , Way , Problem

“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.”

Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Channel 4 A plus 4 (15 October 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105764
Second term as Prime Minister

Death , People , Penalty , Suffering

“We've beaten the Germans twice and now they're back!”

Margaret Thatcher

She reportedly said on Germany's reunification, during EC-summit in December 1989, according to Chancellor Helmut Kohl in his memoris "Erinnerungen 1982-1990" published in 2005; as reported in "Thatcher's foot stamping fury, by Kohl" The Telegraph (3 November 2005) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/03/wkohl03.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/03/ixworld.html
Third term as Prime Minister

“Iraq has violated and taken over the territory of a country which is a full member of the United Nations. That is totally unacceptable and if it were allowed to endure then there would be many other small countries that could never feel safe…The fundamental question is this: whether the nations of the world have the collective will effectively to see that Security Council Resolution is upheld, whether they have the collective will effectively to do anything which the Security Council further agrees to see that Iraq withdraws and that the government of Kuwait is restored to Kuwait.”

Margaret Thatcher

Joint Press Conference with President Bush (2 August 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108170
Third term as Prime Minister

World , Feeling , Question , Country

“The point of having nuclear weapons is to deter a war of any kind. They have succeeded in doing so for the past 37 years. To be an effective deterrent a potential aggressor must believe that under certain circumstances such weapons will be used.”

Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister's Questions (1 February 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105246
First term as Prime Minister

War , Past

“At one end of the spectrum are the terrorist gangs within our borders, and the terrorist states which finance and arm them. At the other are the Hard Left operating inside our system, conspiring to use union power and the apparatus of local government to break, defy and subvert the law.”

Margaret Thatcher

The Second Carlton Lecture (26 November 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105799
Second term as Prime Minister

Law

“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

Article for Daily Telegraph ("My Kind of Tory Party") (30 January 1975) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102600
Shadow Secretary for Environment

Freedom

“The main contribution one can make as a student to one's country in peace or wartime is to study hard and effectively.”

Margaret Thatcher

The Path To Power (1995)

Peace , Study , Country

“I believe that the royal family are a focus of patriotism, of loyalty, of affection and of esteem. That is a rare combination, and we should value it highly.”

Margaret Thatcher

Statement in the House of Commons (24 July 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108162
Third term as Prime Minister

Family , Loyalty

“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

Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1975) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102777
Leader of the Opposition

Freedom , Dependency

“(The Community Charge is) the flagship of the Thatcher fleet.”

Margaret Thatcher

David Butler, Andrew Adonis and Tony Travers, "Failure in British government: the politics of the poll tax" (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994)
Remarks to Conservative backbench MPs, July 1987
Third term as Prime Minister

Communication

“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

Speech to Bexley Conservative Women (15 September 1949) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/100836
1940s

Women , Children , People , Food

“I have made it quite clear – and so did Mr Prior when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – that a unified Ireland was one solution. That is out. A second solution was confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out. That is a derogation from sovereignty.”

Margaret Thatcher

Press conference after an Anglo-Irish summit (19 November 1984) http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/pmo/mt191184.htm. "Mr Prior" is James Prior.
Second term as Prime Minister

“I am not sure what is meant by those who say that the Party should return to something called "One Nation Conservatism". As far as I can tell by their views on European federalism, such people's creed would be better described as "No Nation Conservatism".”

Margaret Thatcher

Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture (11 January 1996) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108353
Post-Prime Ministerial

People

“The star of that year's conference was undoubtedly the Swedish conservative leader—since Prime Minister—who delivered a speech of such startling Thatcherite soundness that in applauding I felt as if I was giving myself a standing ovation.”

Margaret Thatcher book The Downing Street Years

On Carl Bildt's speech to the International Democratic Union.
The Downing Street Years (1993)

Star

“Those terrorists will carry their determination to disrupt society to any lengths. Once again we have a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call political status. There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence. We will not compromise on this. There will be no political status.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in Belfast (5 March 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104589
First term as Prime Minister

Hunger

“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

Speech to Chelsea Conservative Association (26 July 1975) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102750
Leader of the Opposition

“The restoration of the confidence of a great nation is a massive task. We do not shrink from it. It will not be given to this generation of our countrymen to create a great Empire. But it is given to us to demand an end to decline and to make a stand against what Churchill described as the “long dismal drawling tides of drift and surrender, of wrong measurements and feeble impulses”. Though less powerful than once we were, we have friends in every quarter of the globe, who will rejoice at our recovery, welcome the revival of our influence, and benefit from the message and from the example of our renewal.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the Conservative Political Centre Summer School ("The Renewal of Britain") (6 July 1979) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104107
First term as Prime Minister

Confidence

“Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 256

Heart

“I should therefore prefer to restrict my guidelines to the following:”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Don't believe that military interventions, no matter how morally justified, can succeed without clear military goals
Don't fall into the trap of imagining that the West can remake societies
Don't take public opinion for granted – but don't either underrate the degree to which good people will endure sacrifices for a worthwhile cause
Don't allow tyrants and aggressors to get away with it
And when you fight – fight to win.
Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 39

“Difficult days lie ahead, but Britain will face them in the conviction that our cause is just and in the knowledge that we have been doing everything reasonable to secure a negotiated settlement. The principles that we are defending are fundamental to everything that this Parliament and this country stand for. They are the principles of democracy and the rule of law…Britain has a responsibility towards the islanders to restore their democratic way of life. She has a duty to the whole world to show that aggression will not succeed and to uphold the cause of freedom.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (20 May 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104943
First term as Prime Minister

Life , Lie , World , Law

“Having consulted widely among colleagues, I have concluded that the unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who have given me such dedicated support.”

Margaret Thatcher

Statement http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108254 announcing her intention to resign the premiership (22 November 1990).
Third term as Prime Minister

Support , Victory

“I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society – from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Small Business Bureau Conference (8 February 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105617
Second term as Prime Minister

Change , Waiting , Dependency

“Under the Socialists, rapid strides have been taken towards the Iron Curtain State. We have seen increased nationalisation measures, increased powers of central Government over both large and small companies, increased levels of tax on the pay packet and on savings alike, and an increased proportion of the national income spent not by the wage-earner but by the Government or Government agencies. In the result, the Prime Minister has become the first Socialist Minister since the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1951 to say that his policies will mean a reduced standard of living for our people…it is clear that Socialist systems are not good at creating wealth; they can only spend the wealth that others create.”

Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (9 June 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103046
Leader of the Opposition

People , Wealth