Top 350 Margaret Thatcher Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “You can’t lead from the crowd.”

— Margaret Thatcher

152. “To be free is better than to be unfree – always. Any politician who suggests the opposite should be treated as suspect.”

— Margaret Thatcher

153. “Terrorism thrives on a free society. The terrorist uses the feelings in a free society to sap the will of civilization to resist. If the terrorist succeeds, he has won and the whole of free society has lost.”

— Margaret Thatcher

154. “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.”

— Margaret Thatcher

155. “If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.”

— Margaret Thatcher

156. “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

157. “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

158. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

160. “Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.”

— Margaret Thatcher

161. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

Featured in: Strong Quotes

168. “A quick cure is a quack cure.”

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

170. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— 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. “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

Featured in: Country Quotes

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

179. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

181. “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

182. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

184. “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

185. “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

Featured in: Real Quotes

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

188. “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

189. “We have become a grandmother.”

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

191. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

195. “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

196. “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

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

— Margaret Thatcher

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

— Margaret Thatcher

199. “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

200. “It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think that they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.”

— Margaret Thatcher