“Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.”
— Margaret Thatcher
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.”
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
“I wasn't lucky, I deserved it.”
“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it.”
“If you set out to be liked, you will accomplish nothing.”
“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”
“I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near.”
“If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing. ”
“Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.”
“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.”
“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.”
“In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”
“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
“We will stand on principle or we will not stand at all.”
“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”
“When I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, it will be called rent-a-spine.”
“A leader is someone who knows what they want to achieve and can communicate that.”
“Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina.”
“I fight on. I fight to win.”
“What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.”
“Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.”
“If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.”
“The desire to win is born in most of us. The will to win is a matter of training. The manner of winning is a matter of honour.”
“No great goal was ever easily achieved.”
“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work.”
“The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.”
“Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean – power over people, power to the State.”
“Economics are the method; the object is to change the soul.”
“Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.”
“Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word.”
“I want my money back!”
“A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.”
“The price of freedom is still, and always will be, eternal vigilance.”
“I started out in life with two great advantages: No money and good parents.”
“The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.”
“The government has no money of its own. It’s all your money.”
“When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality – other than equality before the law – that government poses a threat to liberty.”
“Hope is no basis for a defense policy.”
“There is no such thing as society.”
“Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.”
“Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.”
“To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.”
“I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.”
“That is what capitalism is: a system that brings wealth to the many, not just the few.”
“History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is based on moral foundations. You can get the economics right, but in addition liberty must be cultivated as a moral quality.”
“In my view dictators do not surrender. They have to be well and truly defeated.”
“In order to unscramble some eggs the leader gotta have some balls.”
“It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.”
“People from my sort of background needed grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.”
“I’ll stay until I’m tired of it. So long as Britain needs me, I shall never be tired of it.”
“In a system of free trade and free markets poor countries – and poor people – are not poor because others are rich. Indeed, if others became less rich the poor would in all probability become still poorer.”
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.”
“Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mist of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past.”
“You don’t win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and making your message perfectly clear.”
“Our children need strong families raising them with sturdy virtues, not to be smothered in the cold arms of the state.”
“Failure? The possibilities do not exist.”
“If we open our hearts to God, He has promised to work within us.”
“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.”
“Many of our troubles are due to the fact that our people turn to politicians for everything.”
“Inflation is the parent of unemployment and the unseen robber of those who have saved.”
“If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.”
“Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose.”
“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.”
“Socialism lays an bad egg by killing the capitalism that lays the golden eggs.”
“It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.”
“One of my favourite quotations is: ‘That which thy father bequeathed thee, earn it anew, if thou wouldst possess it.’”
“You turn if you want to. The Lady’s not for turning.”
“Most women defend themselves. It is the female of the species-it is the tigress and lioness in you which tends to defend when attacked.”
“Of course it’s the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”
“A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag.”
“It’s a funny old world.”
“Our aim is to make tax collecting a declining industry.”
“I believe in the acceptance of personal responsibility, freedom of choice, and the British Empire, which took freedom and the rule of law to countries which would never have known it otherwise.”
“When will Labour learn that you cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels.”
“We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty.”
“All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. It must be business as usual.”
“I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.”
“Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly.”
“Business success isn’t just a selfish aim. Profits spread beyond those who make them and bring jobs and prosperity.”
“What happened in Russia in 1917 wasn’t a revolution – it was a coup d’etat.”
“I’m either the witch or Lady Macbeth of English politics, but someone gotta wear the pants in England when others wearing kilts.”
“Dictators can be deterred, they can be crushed-but they can never be appeased.”
“Socialists don’t like ordinary people choosing, for they might not choose socialism.”
“In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world.”
“Putting the World to Rights.”
“This business of the working class is on its way out I think. After all, aren’t I working class? I work jolly hard, I can tell you.”
“Never flinch. Make up your own mind and do it.”
“You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.”
“I am always on the job.”
“The Russians put guns before butter. We put just about everything before guns.”
“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.”
“If you have a sense of purpose and a sense of direction, I believe people will follow you. Democracy isn’t just about deducing what the people want. Democracy is leading the people as well.”
“It will be years – not in my time – before a woman will become Prime Minister.”
“The application of collective guilt, running from one generation to another, is a dangerous doctrine which would leave few modern nations unscathed.”
“We speak of peace, yes, but whose peace? Poland’s? Bulgaria’s? The peace of the grave?”
“Citizenship should be based on those who have a close and real relationship with this country and its inhabitants.”
“There is a nonsense about intelligent women not being beautiful.”
“We had to do what we had to do – Britain is great again.”
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