Margaret Thatcher

Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

A world without nuclear weapons would be less stable and more dangerous for all of us.

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous, you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

Being prime minister is a lonely job... you cannot lead from the crowd.

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.

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

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

I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan, you should wear it inside where it functions best.

I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.

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

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

Plan your work for today and every day then work your plan.

If you set out to be liked you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing.

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.

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.

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

This lady is not for turning.

If you just set out to be liked you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing.

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

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.

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are you aren't.

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

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.

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important although difficult is the highroad to pride self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

I just owe almost everything to my father and it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town in a very modest home are just the things that I believe have won the election.

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.

I owe nothing to Women's Lib.

I love argument I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me that's not their job.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

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

There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings as traitors... I mean it.

It's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town in a very modest home are just the things that I believe have won the election.

If you want to cut your own throat don't come to me for a bandage.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

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

We were told our campaign wasn't sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.

I'm extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.

Ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause while the hijack lasted.

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.

I like Mr. Gorbachev we can do business together.

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk so long as they do what I say.

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

It may be the cock that crows but it is the hen that lays the eggs.

The battle for women's rights has been largely won.

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

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.

Platitudes? Yes there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

If you want something said ask a man, if you want something done ask a woman.

It's a funny old world.

It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong but the love of money for its own sake.