Top 350 Margaret Thatcher Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 6 of 8

251. “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

252. “No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.”

— Margaret Thatcher

253. “Of course, to be a mother and a housewife is a vocation of a very high kind. But I simply felt that it was not the whole of my vocation. I knew that I also wanted a career. A phrase that Irene Ward, MP for Tynemouth, and I often used was that ‘while the home must always be the centre of one’s life, it should not be the boundary of one’s ambitions’.”

— Margaret Thatcher

254. “Successful entrepreneurship is ultimately a matter of flair. But there is also a fund of practical knowledge to be acquired and, of course, the right legal and financial framework has to be provided for productive enterprise to develop.”

— Margaret Thatcher

255. “Those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians.”

— Margaret Thatcher

256. “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

257. “The Kosovo campaign was a just and necessary war. And I believe that Blair – of whom I have many criticisms – in this case showed real determination in conducting it.”

— Margaret Thatcher

258. “I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do. It won’t rust. And, this time I hope, the head will stay on.”

— Margaret Thatcher

259. “There are no personal sympathies in politics.”

— Margaret Thatcher

260. “There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

— Margaret Thatcher

261. “To accuse me of being too inflexible is poppycock.”

— Margaret Thatcher

262. “It’s okay, Chancellor, you can touch them. Sometimes I just strip down to a tank top and stare at these guns in front of a mirror all day long.”

— Margaret Thatcher

263. “Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”

— Margaret Thatcher

264. “Tyranny must not prevail.”

— Margaret Thatcher

265. “To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.”

— Margaret Thatcher

266. “The Labour Party believes in turning workers against owners; we believe in turning workers into owners.”

— Margaret Thatcher

267. “You know the critical thing with the Communist countries is Communism, which by definition consists of control by the government.”

— Margaret Thatcher

268. “I have made it quite clear that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was a confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out-that is a derogation of sovereignty.”

— Margaret Thatcher

269. “Just rejoice at the news and congratulate our armed forces and the Marines. Rejoice!”

— Margaret Thatcher

270. “If there is one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure, it was my policy on German reunification.”

— Margaret Thatcher

271. “The European single currency is bound to fail, economically, politically and indeed socially, though the timing, occasion and full consequences are all necessarily still unclear.”

— Margaret Thatcher

272. “I hope we shall see more ande more women combining marriage and a career. Prejudice against this dual role is not confined to men. I regret to say, it comes from our own sex.”

— Margaret Thatcher

273. “Home is where you come to when you’ve got nothing better to do.”

— Margaret Thatcher

274. “I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.”

— Margaret Thatcher

275. “It is in a country’s interests to keep faith with its allies. States in this sense are like people. If you have a reputation for exacting favors and not returning them, the favours dry up.”

— Margaret Thatcher

276. “Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.”

— Margaret Thatcher

277. “Ronald Reagan knew his own mind. He had firm principles – and, I believe, right ones. He expounded them clearly, he acted upon them decisively.”

— Margaret Thatcher

278. “It is no exaggeration to describe plain English as a fundamental tool of government.”

— Margaret Thatcher

279. “I love his music because he was my generation. But then again, Elvis is everyone’s generation, and he always will be.”

— Margaret Thatcher

280. “We should not expect the state to appear in the guise of an extravagant good fairy at every christening, a loquacious companion at every stage of life’s journey, and the unknown mourner at every funeral.”

— Margaret Thatcher

281. “I do wish I had brought my cheque book. I don’t believe in credit cards.”

— Margaret Thatcher

282. “I was asked whether I was trying to restore Victorian values. I said straight out I was. And I am.”

— Margaret Thatcher

283. “There are some remarkable parallels between basketball and politics. Michael Jordan has already mastered the skill most needed for political success: how to stay aloft without visible means of support.”

— Margaret Thatcher

284. “I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together.”

— Margaret Thatcher

285. “Object to merit and distinction, and you’re setting your face against quality, independence, originality, genius against all the richness and variety of life. When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help.”

— Margaret Thatcher

286. “There is much to be said for trying to improve some disadvantaged people’s lot. There is nothing to be said for trying to create heaven on earth.”

— Margaret Thatcher

287. “I couldn’t live without work. That’s what makes me so sympathetic towards those people who are unemployed. I don’t know how they live without working.”

— Margaret Thatcher

288. “In the Conservative Party we have no truck with outmoded Marxist doctrine about class warfare. For us it is not who you are, who your family is or where you come from that matters, but what you are and what you can do for your country that counts.”

— Margaret Thatcher

289. “It is absolutely right that President Reagan considers SDI and thank goodness people considered nuclear research before the last war.”

— Margaret Thatcher

290. “We should not underestimate the enormity of the task which lies ahead. But little can be achieved without sound money. It is the bedrock of sound government.”

— Margaret Thatcher

291. “If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.”

— Margaret Thatcher

292. “I remain totally convinced that when children are young, however busy we may be with the practical duties inside the home, themost important thing of all is to devbote enoughh time and care to their needs and problems.”

— Margaret Thatcher

293. “To the extent that the West is to blame at all for the ills of the Third World it is to the extent that the West created Marx and his successors, among whom must be numbered many of those who advised the Third World leaders in post-war years.”

— Margaret Thatcher

294. “Most women are far more intelligent than people give them credit for.”

— Margaret Thatcher

295. “They are all a rotten lot. Schmidt and the Americans and we are the only people who would do any standing up and fighting if necessary.”

— Margaret Thatcher

296. “As the former dissident Vladimir Bukovsky one remarked – referring to the Russian proverb to the effect that you cannot make an omlette without breaking eggs – he had seen plenty of broken eggs, but had never tasted any omlette.”

— Margaret Thatcher

297. “We have made too much of one or two people, and we think that they can win or lose elections for us. Don’t be depressed if one particular person transgresses. It doesn’t lose an election unless the Party loses faith in itself.”

— Margaret Thatcher

298. “We’re saying to anyone who dares to attack us, Do not do it, you couldn’t win, the result would be devastating! I think you’re saying the same.”

— Margaret Thatcher

299. “I think, historically, the term ‘Thatcherism’ will be seen as a compliment.”

— Margaret Thatcher

300. “It is one of the great weaknesses of reasonable men and women that they imagine that projects which fly in the face of commonsense are not serious or being seriously undertaken.”

— Margaret Thatcher