Margaret Thatcher citations (354 citations, Page 5)

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

“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.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Taunton Conservatives (20 February 1976) https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102833
Leader of the Opposition

“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”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech at Young Conservative Conference (8 February 1975) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102484
Shadow Secretary for Environment

“Victorian values.”

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Margaret Thatcher

This phrase, often associated with Thatcher, derives from an interview with Brian Walden on Weekend World (16 January, 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105087. However, it is Brian Walden who says, in summarising Margaret Thatcher, "you've really outlined an approval of what I would call Victorian values".
From a speech to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (January 28, 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105244
Thatcher also gave the following quote a few weeks later : I was brought up by a Victorian grandmother. You were taught to work jolly hard, you were taught to improve yourself, you were taught self-reliance, you were taught to live within your income, you were taught that cleanliness was next to godliness. You were taught self-respect, you were taught always to give a hand to your neighbour, you were taught tremendous pride in your country, you were taught to be a good member of your community. All of these things are Victorian values. [...] They are also perennial values as well.
Radio Interview for IRN programme ‘The Decision Makers’ (April 15, 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105291 ; conducted by Peter Allen
Source: Disputed, P.M. Thatcher made this observation shortly thereafter : The other day I appeared on a certain television programme. And I was asked whether I was trying to restore ‘Victorian values.’ I said straight out, yes I was. And I am. And if you ask me whether I believe in the puritan work ethic, I’ll give you an equally straight answer to that too.

“I had applied for a job [at Imperial Chemical Industries] in 1948 and was called for a personal interview. However I failed to get selected. Many years later, I succeeded in finding out why I had been rejected. The remarks written by the selectors on my application were: "This woman is headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated!"”

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Margaret Thatcher

Quoted by K. Sathyanarayana in The Power of Humor at the Workplace http://books.google.com/books?id=5ggWAQAAMAAJ&q="I+had+applied+for+a+job+in+1948+and+was+called+for+a+personal+interview.+However+I+failed+to+get+selected+Many+years+later%2C+I+succeeded+in+finding+out+why+I+had+been+rejected+The+remarks+written+by+the+selectors+on+my+application+were+This+woman+is+headstrong+obstinate+and+dangerously+self-opinionated" (2007)
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Home really was very small and we had no mod cons and I remember having a dream that the one thing I really wanted was to live in a nice house, you know, a house with more things than we had…We had not got hot water. We only had a cold water tap. We had to heat all the hot water in a copper. There was an outside toilet. So when people tell me about these things, I know about them.”

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Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Yorkshire Television Woman to Woman (2 October 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105830
Second term as Prime Minister

“It seems like cloud cuckoo land… If anyone is suggesting that I would go to Parliament and suggest the abolition of the pound sterling – no! … We have made it quite clear that we will not have a single currency imposed on us.”

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Margaret Thatcher

To the media immediately after the EEC Rome summit meeting (28 October, 1990); as reported in A Conservative Coup: The Fall of Margaret Thatcher (1992) by Alan Watkins.
Third term as Prime Minister

“Socialists don't like people to do things for themselves. Socialists like to get people dependent on the state! You never build a great society that way.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Post-Prime Ministerial

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

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1977) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103443. The Labour government had entered into a Pact with the Liberal leader David Steel.
Leader of the Opposition

“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.”

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Margaret Thatcher

1951 General Election Address (8 October 1951) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/100912
1950s

“The Labour Party has now been taken over by extremists…The Labour Party is now committed to a programme which is frankly and unashamedly Marxist, a programme initiated by its National Executive and now firmly endorsed by its official Party Conference. In the House of Commons the Labour Left may still be outnumbered, but their votes are vital to the continuance of Labour in office, and that gives them a strength out of proportion to their numbers. And make no mistake, that strength, those numbers, are growing. In the constituency Labour parties, in the Parliamentary Labour Party, in Transport House, in the Cabinet Room itself, the Marxists call an increasing number of tunes…let's not mince words. The dividing line between the Labour Party programme and Communism is becoming harder and harder to detect. Indeed, in many respects Labour's programme is more extreme than those of many Communist parties of Western Europe.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (8 October 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103105
Leader of the Opposition

“In this country and in other democracies, the enemies of civilisation and freedom have turned to the gun and the bomb to destroy those they can't persuade. The terrorist threat to freedom is worldwide. It can never be met by appeasement. Give in to the terrorist and you breed more terrorism. At home and abroad our message is the same. We will not bargain, nor compromise, nor bend the knee to terrorists.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (14 October 1988) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107352
Third term as Prime Minister

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

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Margaret Thatcher livre Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 47

“I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Third term as Prime Minister

“Peace, freedom and justice are only to be found where people are prepared to defend them.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech to the Conservative Party Convention 1982 https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105032
First term as Prime Minister

“The principle that adequate health care should be provided for all, regardless of ability to pay, must be the foundation of any arrangements for financing the Health Service.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister's Questions (1 December 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104755
First term as Prime Minister

“I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Lord Mayor's Banquet at Guildhall (12 November 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108241
Third term as Prime Minister

“We have reached a crisis in world history, a crisis which demands swift and certain action…We believe in the freedom of the democratic way of life. If we serve that idea faithfully with tenacity of purpose, we have nothing to fear from Russian Communism…Communism seizes power by force, not by free choice of the people. The democratic nations must therefore have forces with which to fight it so that choice of government may be free. In the light of these convictions our task is clear. We must firstly believe in the Western way of life and serve it steadfastly. Secondly we must build up our fighting strength to be prepared to defend our ideals, for aggressive nations understand only the threat of force. The situation is already grave, but much is possible for a nation with clear intentions and the ability to carry them into action.”

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Margaret Thatcher

New Year Message as Conservative candidate for Dartford (29 December 1950) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/100896
1950s

“Gentlemen, there is nothing sweeter than success, and you boys have got it!”

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Margaret Thatcher

Her comment to the SAS group, at 9.45 p.m. soon after Operation Nimrod (5 May 1980)
First term as Prime Minister

“But if Saddam had been in a position credibly to threaten America or any of its allies – or the coalition's forces – with attack by missiles with nuclear warheads, would we have gone to the Gulf at all?”

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Margaret Thatcher livre Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 49

“Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Interview for The Sunday Times (1 May 1981) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=104475
First term as Prime Minister

“I must tell the House that the Falkland Islands and their dependencies remain British territory. No aggression and no invasion can alter that simple fact. It is the Government's objective to see that the islands are freed from occupation and are returned to British administration at the earliest possible moment…We cannot allow the democratic rights of the islanders to be denied by the territorial ambitions of Argentina.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (3 April 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104910
First term as Prime Minister

“The people of the Falkland Islands, like the people of the United Kingdom, are an island race. Their way of life is British; their allegiance is to the Crown. They are few in number, but they have the right to live in peace, to choose their own way of life and to determine their own allegiance. Their way of life is British; their allegiance is to the Crown. It is the wish of the British people and the duty of Her Majesty's Government to do everything that we can to uphold that right. That will be our hope and our endeavour and, I believe, the resolve of every Member of the House.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Speech in the House of Commons (3 April 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104910
First term as Prime Minister

“[M]ore than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything—security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Imprimis, "The Moral Foundations of Society" (March 1995), http://imprimisarchives.hillsdale.edu/file/archives/pdf/1995_03_Imprimis.pdf an edited version of a lecture Thatcher had delivered at Hillsdale College in November 1994. In characterizing the Athenians Thatcher was paraphrasing from "Athens' Failure," a chapter of classicist Edith Hamilton's book The Echo of Greece (1957), pp.47-48, http://www.ergo-sum.net/books/Hamilton_EchoOfGreece_pp.47-48.jpg but in her lecture Thatcher mistakenly attributed the opinions to Edward Gibbon. Subsequently, a version of this quotation has been widely circulated on the Internet, misattributed to Gibbon.
In a later address, "The Moral Foundation of Democracy," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb1sgMoYb70 given in April 1996 at a Clearwater, Florida gathering of the James Madison Institute, Thatcher delivered the same sentiment in a slightly different way: " 'In the end, more than they wanted freedom, [the Athenians] wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life. But they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. … When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.' There you have the germ of the dependency culture: freedom from responsibility."
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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.”

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Margaret Thatcher

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

“You never compromise with violence. You never compromise with intimidation. You never compromise by those who want to use those to extinguish freedom and democracy, because if you do then the very things for which you stand are extinguished.”

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Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Channel 4 A Week in Politics (1 February 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105955
Second term as Prime Minister

“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.”

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Margaret Thatcher

The News of the World (20 September 1981), quoted in Chris Ogden, Maggie: An Intimate Portrait of a Woman in Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 342.
First term as Prime Minister

“You will quite often hear people say: “Well look, she is the best man in politics,” and I say: “Oh no, much better than that; she is the best woman.””

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Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Central TV (18 June 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106426
Second term as Prime Minister

“We have become a grandmother.”

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Margaret Thatcher

Statement to the press on the birth of her first grandchild (3 March 1989) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107590
Third term as Prime Minister