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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Margaret Thatcher (British Head of State)

Inspirational Quotations by Margaret Thatcher (British Head of State)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (1925–2013,) also identified by the title Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, was a British Conservative stateswoman who served as Britain’s prime minister 1979–90. She is celebrated as one of the greatest and the most influential politicians in British history.

For more than a decade, Thatcher enjoyed almost unchallenged political mastery, winning three consecutive general elections. Nicknamed “The Iron Lady” as early as 1976, Thatcher became known for her willpower and her emphasis on individual responsibility and enterprise. Her time in office was marked by monetarist policies, privatization of nationalized industries, and legislation of trade unions. The direction she pursued with intense energy and steadfast will brought about a transformation of Britain’s economic performance.

In retirement, Thatcher became a member of the House of Lords in 1992 and raised funds for her Thatcher Foundation. She also wrote her best-selling memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Margaret Thatcher

I have a habit of comparing the phraseology of communiques…noting a certain similarity of words, a certain similarity of optimism…and a certain similarity in the lack of practical results during the ensuring years.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Communication

One only gets to the top rung of the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly all sorts of powers, all sorts of abilities which you thought never belonged to you—suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, “Well, I’ll have a go, too.”
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Success

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Agreement

This lady is not for turning.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence

In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Action

It pays to know the enemy—not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.
—Margaret Thatcher

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win.
—Margaret Thatcher

I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Success, Work, Hard Work

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Success & Failure, Achievement

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
Topics: Women

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Cheerfulness

I love being at the center of things.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Power

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Arguments

People constantly requesting government intervention are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Society, Government

Pennies don’t fall from heaven. They have to be earned on earth.
—Margaret Thatcher

Pennies do not come from heaven—they have to be earned here on earth.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Luck, Work

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Opportunity

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
Topics: Nation

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Fashion

Of course, it is the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Truth

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.
—Margaret Thatcher

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Politicians, Politics

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Criticism

Most women defend themselves. It is the female of the species—it is the tigress and lioness in you—which tends to defend when attacked.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Women

I shan’t be pulling the levers there but I shall be a very good back-seat driver.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Power

The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Equality

I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Women, Luck, Feminism

If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I am very sorry for the forty-eight.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Opposition, Dissent

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.
—Margaret Thatcher
Topics: Lies, Lying, Deception/Lying

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
Topics: Agreement

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