Margaret Thatcher Quotes

262 Sourced Quotes

'Europe' in anything other than the geographical sense is a wholly artificial construct. It makes no sense at all to lump together Beethoven and Debussy, Voltaire and Burke, Vermeer and Picasso, Notre Dame and St Paul's, boiled beef and bouillabaisse, and portray them as elements of a 'European' musical, philosophical, artistic, architectural or gastronomic reality. If Europe charms us, as it has so often charmed me, it is precisely because of its contrasts and contradictions, not its coherence and continuity.

Margaret Thatcher
Marxists get up early to further their cause. We need to get up even earlier to defend our freedom.

Margaret Thatcher
Please don't use the word tough. People might get the impression that I don't care. And I do care, very deeply. Resilient, I think.

Margaret Thatcher
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
We have to see that the spirit of the South Atlantic—the real spirit of Britain—is kindled not only by war but can now be fired by peace. We have the first prerequisite. We know that we can do it—we haven't lost the ability. That is the Falklands Factor.

Margaret Thatcher
Now, that brings me to the Liberal Party. I gather that during the last few days there have been some ill-natured jokes about their new symbol, a bird of some kind, adopted by the Liberal Democrats at Blackpool. Politics is a serious business, and one should not lower the tone unduly. So I will say only this of the Liberal Democrat symbol and of the party it symbolises. This is an ex-parrot. It is not merely stunned. It has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker. It is a parrot no more. It has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot. And now for something completely different.

Margaret Thatcher
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.

Margaret Thatcher
I am sure you will agree that, in Britain with our democratic institutions and the need for a high degree of consent, some of the measures adopted in Chile are quite unacceptable. Our reform must be in line with our traditions and our Constitution. At times the process may seem painfully slow. But I am certain we shall achieve our reforms in our own way and in our own time. Then they will endure.

Margaret Thatcher
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...

Margaret Thatcher
But the whole history of America is quite different from Europe. People went there to get away from the intolerance and constraints of life in Europe. They sought liberty and opportunity; and their strong sense of purpose has over two centuries, helped create a new unity and pride in being American.

Margaret Thatcher
It will be years — and not in my time — before a woman will lead the party or become Prime Minister.

Margaret Thatcher
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

Margaret Thatcher
On my way here I passed a local cinema and it turns out you were expecting me after all, for the billboards read: The Mummy Returns.

Margaret Thatcher
Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

Margaret Thatcher
I'm standing up for the right of self-determination. I'm standing up for our territory. I'm standing up for our people. I'm standing up for international law. I'm standing up for all those territories - those small territories and peoples the world over - who, if someone doesn't stand up and say to an invader 'enough, stop', would be at risk.

Margaret Thatcher
Don't you think that's the way to persuade more companies to come to this region and get more jobs—because I want them—for the people who are unemployed. Not always standing there as moaning minnies. Now stop it!

Margaret Thatcher
I don't spend a lifetime watching which way the cat jumps. I know really which way I want the cats to go.

Margaret Thatcher
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
I believe we should continue to have a partnership of national states each retaining the right to protect its vital interests, but developing more effectively than at present the habit of working together.

Margaret Thatcher
People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture … We are not in politics to ignore peoples' worries: we are in politics to deal with them.

Margaret Thatcher
I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.

Margaret Thatcher
In those days one advantage of being a woman was that there was a basic courtesy towards us on which we could draw - something which today's feminists have largely dissipated.

Margaret Thatcher
There are dangers in consensus: it could be an attempt to satisfy people holding no particular views about anything.... No great party can survive except on the basis of firm beliefs about what it wants to do.

Margaret Thatcher
Free enterprise has enabled the creative and the acquisitive urges of man to be given expression in a way which benefits all members of society. Let free enterprise fight back now, not for itself, but for all those who believe in freedom.

Margaret Thatcher
Let us, then, draw together in the name, not of jingoism, but of justice

Margaret Thatcher