Top 350 Margaret Thatcher Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.”

— Margaret Thatcher

152. “I was turned out because I said to Europe no, no, no. That no, no, no has now turned into yes, yes. Two yes’s not three because he got the Social Chapter out and he’s reserved his position on the single currency.”

— Margaret Thatcher

153. “I am an undiluted admirer of American values and the American dream and I believe they will continue to inspire not just the people of the United States but millions across the face of the globe.”

— Margaret Thatcher

154. “The accumulation of wealth is a process which is of itself morally neutral. True, as Christianity teaches, riches bring temptations. But then so does poverty.”

— Margaret Thatcher

155. “We were told our campaign wasn’t sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.”

— Margaret Thatcher

156. “I exercise my right as a free citizen to spend my own money in my own way, so that I can go on the day, the time, to the doctor I choose and get out fast.”

— Margaret Thatcher

157. “Freedom under the law must never be taken for granted.”

— Margaret Thatcher

158. “I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.”

— Margaret Thatcher

159. “When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help.”

— Margaret Thatcher

160. “I will not change just to court popularity.”

— Margaret Thatcher

161. “What is right for the family is right for Britain.”

— Margaret Thatcher

162. “There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.”

— Margaret Thatcher

163. “I applaud strong government, but not overweening government sustained by cronies, ciphers and a personality cult.”

— Margaret Thatcher

164. “A quick cure is a quack cure.”

— Margaret Thatcher

165. “I don’t know what I would do without Whitelaw. Everyone should have a Willy.”

— Margaret Thatcher

166. “There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.”

— Margaret Thatcher

167. “The lesson is clear. Inflation devalues us all.”

— Margaret Thatcher

168. “Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.”

— Margaret Thatcher

169. “The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.”

— Margaret Thatcher

170. “Consensus is the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects. – Margaret Thatcher.”

— Margaret Thatcher

171. “If you are guided by opinion polls, you are not practicing leadership – you are practicing followership.”

— Margaret Thatcher

172. “Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.”

— Margaret Thatcher

173. “I am not hard – I’m frightfully soft. But I will not be hounded.”

— Margaret Thatcher

174. “Occupied Falklands are the thorn in my balls.”

— Margaret Thatcher

175. “Wars are not caused by the buildup of weapons. They are caused when an aggressor believes he can achieve his objectives at an acceptable price.”

— Margaret Thatcher

176. “I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.”

— Margaret Thatcher

177. “There might be new technology, but technological progress itself was nothing new – and over the years it had not destroyed jobs, but created them.”

— Margaret Thatcher

178. “You cannot make an omelet without breaking some balls.”

— Margaret Thatcher

179. “There is nothing inevitable about rising unemployment.”

— Margaret Thatcher

180. “Israel must never be expected to jeopardize her security: if she was ever foolish enough to do so, and then suffered for it, the backlash against both honest brokers and Palestinians would be immense – ‘land for peace’ must also bring peace.”

— Margaret Thatcher

181. “I don’t think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.”

— Margaret Thatcher

182. “When you’ve spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it’s exciting to have a real crisis on your hands.”

— Margaret Thatcher

183. “New technology is the true friend of full employment; the indispensable ally of progress; and the surest guarantee of prosperity.”

— Margaret Thatcher

184. “If a woman like Eva Peron with no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with the ideals that I have.”

— Margaret Thatcher

185. “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 upon us.”

— Margaret Thatcher

186. “It took us a long time to get rid of the effects of the French Revolution 200 years ago. We don’t want another one.”

— Margaret Thatcher

187. “Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.”

— Margaret Thatcher

188. “The desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom.”

— Margaret Thatcher

189. “I want to get totally rid of class distinction. As someone put it one of the papers this morning: Marks and Spencer have triumphed over Karl Marx and Engels.”

— Margaret Thatcher

190. “We have become a grandmother.”

— Margaret Thatcher

191. “There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.”

— Margaret Thatcher

192. “I am not a consensus politician. Im a conviction politician.”

— Margaret Thatcher

193. “During my lifetime most of the problems the world has faced have come, in one fashion or other, from mainland Europe, and the solutions from outside it.”

— Margaret Thatcher

194. “Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.”

— Margaret Thatcher

195. “Do you think you would ever have heard of Christianity if the Apostles had gone out and said, ‘I believe in consensus?’”

— Margaret Thatcher

196. “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”

— Margaret Thatcher

197. “Let us, then, draw together in the name, not of jingoism, but of justice.”

— Margaret Thatcher

198. “I do believe that political arrangements which are based upon violence, intimidation and theft will eventually break down – and will deserve to do so.”

— Margaret Thatcher

199. “Women have plenty of roles in which they can serve with distinction: some of us even run countries. But generally we are better at wielding the handbag than the bayonet.”

— Margaret Thatcher

200. “For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other’s good intentions.”

— Margaret Thatcher