"The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians."
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Quote collection
Margaret Thatcher quotes (page 2 of 26)
508 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim."
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"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."
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"The government has no money of its own. It's all your money."
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"Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money."
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"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."
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"The Iraqis had paid a terrible price for Saddam's folly (in the Gulf War). But looking at the devastation they left behind (in Kuwait), my sympathy was limited."
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"It is important not to allow ever wider coalition-building to become an end in itself. As we saw in the Gulf War of 1990, international pressures, particularly those exerted from within an alliance, can result in the failure to follow actions through and so leave future problems unresolved."
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"To me consensus seems to be - 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 - the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus"?"
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"You don't win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and making your message perfectly clear."
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"Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you."
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"That nations that have gone for equality, like Communism, have neither freedom nor justice nor equality, they've the greatest inequalities of all, the privileges of the politicians are far greater compared with the ordinary folk than in any other country. The nations that have gone for freedom, justice and independence of people have still freedom and justice, and they have far more equality between their people, far more respect for each individual than the other nations. Go my way. You will get freedom and justice and much less difference between people than you do in the Soviet Union."
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"The first step in calculating which way to go is to find out where you are."
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"Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited."
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"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them."
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