Quotes from Margaret Thatcher

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

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.

In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.

Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.

No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

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

There are significant differences between the American and European version of capitalism. The American traditiionally emphasizes the need for limited government, light regulations, low taxes and maximum labour-market flexibility. Its success has been shown above all in the ability to create new jobs, in which it is consistently more successful than Europe.

To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only this to say, 'You turn if you want; the lady's not for turning.

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

I'm back... and you knew I was coming. On my way here I passed a cinema with the sign 'The Mummy Returns'.

Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.

I wasn't lucky, I deserved it.

The facts of life are conservative.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing." ~ Margaret Thatcher

Any leader has to have a certain amount of steel in them, so I am not that put out being called the Iron Lady.

The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition, are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long. . . . 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.

If you want something spoken about, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.

Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

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'.

well it used to be about trying to do something, now it is about trying to be someone

Freedom will destroy itself if it is not exercised within some sort of moral framework, some body of shared beliefs, some spiritual heritage transmitted through the Church, the family, and the school.

The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.

Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag.