Margaret Thatcher citations (354 citations, Page 11)

Margaret Thatcher: 354 citations 0 J'aime

Margaret Thatcher citations célèbres

“Notre politique n'est pas fondée sur la jalousie ou sur la haine, mais sur la liberté individuelle de l'homme ou de la femme. Nous ne voulons pas interdire le succès et la réussite, nous voulons encourager le dynamisme et l'initiative. En 1940, ce n'est pas l'appel à la nationalisation qui a poussé notre pays à combattre le totalitarisme, c'est l'appel de la liberté.”

Margaret Thatcher

Discours prononcé initialement en 1950 à Dartford
Les chemins du pouvoir, Mémoires II, 1995

“La grande réforme politique du siècle dernier a consisté à accorder le droit de vote à un nombre toujours accru de citoyens. Désormais la grande réforme politique de ce siècle voulue par les Tories consiste à permettre l'accès à la propriété à un nombre toujours accru de ces mêmes citoyens.”

Margaret Thatcher

français
Discours de Bornemouth, 10 octobre 1986

“Je n'ai jamais oublié que l'objectif inavoué du socialisme – municipal ou national – était d'accroître la dépendance. La pauvreté n'était pas seulement le sol nourricier du socialisme : elle en était l'effet délibérément recherché.”

Margaret Thatcher

10 Downing Street, Mémoires, 1993

“La dame n'aime pas renoncer”

Margaret Thatcher

The lady is not for turning
Propos tenus dans un discours devant le Conseil central de son parti, en octobre 1980
10 Downing Street, Mémoires, 1993

“Le socialisme a l'État pour credo. Il considère les êtres humains ordinaires comme le matériau brut de ses projets de changements sociaux.”

Margaret Thatcher

Propos tenus dans un discours devant le Conseil central de son parti, en mars 1990
10 Downing Street, Mémoires, 1993

“Le capitalisme populaire n'est rien d'autre qu'une croisade destinée à permettre au plus grand nombre de participer de plein droit à la vie économique de la nation.”

Margaret Thatcher

français
Discours de Bornemouth, 10 octobre 1986

Margaret Thatcher: Citations en anglais

“Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly.”

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Margaret Thatcher

To President George H.W. Bush, regarding the Persian Gulf conflict, as reported in an AP story http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910308&slug=1270460 published March 8,1991
Former Vice President Dick Cheney : It’s an old wive’s story.
Fox News interview (April 8, 2013) http://video.foxnews.com/v/2287344111001/dick-cheney-pays-tribute-to-margaret-thatcher/ with Greta Van Susteren that focused on his recollections of Prime Minister Thatcher
PolitiFact.com http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/apr/10/dick-cheney/dick-cheney-margaret-thatcher-go-wobbly/, after a fairly extensive review of available source material, concluded, We rate Cheney’s claim False.
Disputed

“I do not believe that people who go on strike in this country have a legitimate cause. Throughout the period of the Labour Government and this one, I have never supported any strikes in this country.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister's Questions (22 June 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104972
First term as Prime Minister

“Last week, Mr President, I seemed to hear a strange sound emanating from Blackpool. And I thought at first it was seagulls. [laughter] Then I remembered that Labour was holding its annual Conference there. And I realised it wasn't seagulls, it was chickens—[laughter and applause] chickens being counted before they were hatched—[laughter and applause] except for Labour's call to enter the ERM and cut interest rates. That was a case of counting chickens after they'd flown the coop. Then, I heard voices getting all worked up about someone they kept calling the “Prime Minister in Waiting”. [laughter] It occurs to me, Mr President, that he might have quite a wait. [applause] I can see him now, like the people queuing up for the Winter sales. All got up with his camp bed, hot thermos, woolly balaclava, CND badge… [laughter and applause] Waiting, waiting, waiting… And then when the doors open, in he rushes—only to find that, as always, there's “that woman” ahead of him again. [applause and laughter] I gather there may be an adjective between “that” and “woman” [laughter] only no-one will tell me what it is. [laughter and applause]”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108217
Third term as Prime Minister

“I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air—the rather nauseating stench of appeasement.”

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Margaret Thatcher

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108234 On a parliament debate about the Gulf War
Third term as Prime Minister

“Member for Islwyn was going to have a single currency willy-nilly. He has already made up his mind. The argument that he uses is that, if others have it, we must. That is an argument for a flock of sheep, not for people who are sent here to analyse the problem and to use our minds and our reason to say which course we should follow.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (20 November 1991) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108291
Post-Prime Ministerial

“I don't know by whom we might be threatened. What I do know is a government [sic] we have to be prepared for any eventuality, and I do know that possessions of those nuclear weapons has kept the peace between nuclear powers far better than the possession of conventional weapons did. You know when we only had conventional weapons Europe was at war again with 21–22 years. We have had 38 years peace and in another four or five years we will have the longest period of peace in Europe for centuries. That, to me, is the greatest prize of all, and…I'm prepared to allocate that expenditure to keep peace for the people for whom I'm responsible.”

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Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Granada TV (1 June 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105096
First term as Prime Minister

“The President of the Commission, M. Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No. No. No.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Debate in the House of Commons (30 October 1990) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-10-30/Debate-1.html
Third term as Prime Minister

“If they do not wish to confer the honour, I am the last person who would wish to receive it.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Remarks after Oxford University voted not to award her an honorary degree. Mail on Sunday (3 February 1985), quoted in John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 399.
Second term as Prime Minister

“The kind of Conservatism which he and I…favoured would be best described as "liberal", in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone not of the latter day collectivists. That is to say, we placed far greater confidence in individuals, families, businesses and neighbourhoods than in the State.”

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Margaret Thatcher

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

“Paddy Ashdown: …this is an agreement which the right hon. Lady will be entitled to regard with a certain pride and satisfaction as she looks back on the twilight days of her premiership…”

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Margaret Thatcher

Third term as Prime Minister

“The battle of the Falklands was a remarkable military operation, boldly planned, bravely executed, and brilliantly accomplished. We owe an enormous debt to the British forces and to the Merchant Marine. We honour them all. They have been supported by a people united in defence of our way of life and of our sovereign territory.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (15 June 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104969
First term as Prime Minister

“I am a great admirer of Professor Hayek. Some of his books are absolutely supreme—“The Constitution of Liberty” and the three volumes on “Law, Legislation and Liberty”—and would be well read by almost every hon. Member.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (10 March 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104593
First term as Prime Minister

“[It is a] killing field of the like of which I thought we would never see in Europe again [and is] not worthy of Europe, not worthy of the west and not worthy of the United States… This is happening in the heart of Europe and we have not done more to stop it. It is in Europe's sphere of influence. It should be in Europe's sphere of conscience… We are little more than an accomplice to massacre.”

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Margaret Thatcher

After UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd claimed lifting the arms embargo to Bosnians would create a "level killing field", as reported in 'Thatcher says massacre brings shame on west' by Philip Webster and Robert Morgan in The Times (14 April 1993)
Post-Prime Ministerial

“We have brought three words—freedom, choice, opportunity—into the centre of the political debate. And we have exposed the language of Socialism, the gloss they put on words to conceal their true meaning. For instance, Socialists say “publicly owned”. What they mean is “State controlled”. Socialists say “Government aid”. What they mean is “taxpayers' aid”. Socialists say “social justice”. What they mean is “selective justice”. Socialists say “equality.” What they mean is “levelling down”. Why do they twist the truth like this? Because they dare not spell out the Socialist reality. One way to destroy capitalism, said Lenin, was to devalue its currency. Another way is to debase its language. Whenever we can, let us, like Luther, nail the truth to the door—and let us do it in unambiguous English. These are the opening rounds in the battle of ideas. It is a battle that we are winning.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Central Council ("The Historic Choice") (20 March 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102990
Leader of the Opposition

“It is traditional conservatism…It is radical, because at the time when I took over we needed to be radical. I would not call it populist. I may say many of the things that I have said strike a chord in the hearts of ordinary people. Why? Because they are British. Because their character is independent. They do not like to be shoved around. Because they are prepared to take responsibility. Because they do expect to be loyal to their friends and loyal allies. You call it populist. I say it strikes a chord in the hearts of people. I know, because it struck a chord in my heart many many years ago.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Radio Interview for BBC Radio 3 (17 December 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105934
Second term as Prime Minister

“Socialists then shift the ground for taking industries into “public ownership”. They then tell us that some industries cannot survive any longer unless they are taken into public ownership, allegedly to protect the public from the effects of their collapse. It all sounds so cosy, and so democratic. But is it true? No, of course it isn't. The moment ownership passes into the name of the public is the moment the public ceases to have any ownership or accountability, and often the moment when it ceases to get what it wants. But it is invariably the moment when the public starts to pay. Pays to take the industry over. Pays the losses by higher taxes. Pays for inefficiencies in higher prices.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Finchley Conservatives (31 January 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947
Leader of the Opposition

“Today we are coming to realise that an epoch in history is over…For more than forty years that Iron Curtain remained in place. Few of us expected to see it lifted in our life-time. Yet with great suddenness the impossible has happened. Communism is broken, utterly broken…We do not see this new Soviet Union as an enemy, but as a country groping its way towards freedom. We no longer have to view the world through a prism of East-West relations. The Cold War is over.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the Aspen Institute ("Shaping a New Global Community") (5 August 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108174
Third term as Prime Minister

“It is generally acknowledged that the Government are running, in the Maze prison, one of the most liberal and humane prison regimes anywhere…What hunger strikers are asking for—the one who died last was in fact a murderer; let us not mince our words—is political status by easy stages. They cannot have it. They are murderers and people who use force and violence to obtain their ends. They have made perfectly clear what they want. They cannot and will not have it.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister's Questions (4 May 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104649 regarding the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
First term as Prime Minister

“Unfortunately in our education system youngsters are still not given sufficient encouragement to go into industry or commerce and not told that it is a good thing to make an honest profit. They should be told that if you don't make a profit, you won't be in business very long because you haven't anything to plow back for tomorrow. You make your profit by pleasing others so you have to make it honestly.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Interview for Director magazine (4 July 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105182, quoted in Chris Ogden, Maggie: An Intimate Portrait of a Woman in Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 345.
Second term as Prime Minister

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

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Margaret Thatcher

Interviewed http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103864 by Michael Cockerell for BBC TV's Campaign '79 (27 April 1979).
Leader of the Opposition

“This is what we believe.”

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Margaret Thatcher

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.
Leader of the Opposition