Margaret Thatcher

British PM, Iron Lady

Contemporary influential 154 sayings

Sayings by Margaret Thatcher

I just owe my father everything. He brought me up to believe that I was always going to be able to do anything I wanted to do. He was a very remarkable man.

1979 — Interview with The Times
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I am not a fan of the permissive society.

1970s — Interview with BBC
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I owe nothing to feminism. I fought my way through on my own.

1982 — Interview with The Daily Telegraph
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Europe will be stronger precisely because it has Britain as a member.

1988 — Speech to the College of Europe
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The government has no source of money other than the money people earn themselves. If government wants to spend more, it can only do so by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. And it's no good thinking that someone else will pay. That someone else is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money.

1987 — Interview with Woman's Own magazine
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Socialists cry 'Power to the people', and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they mean - a new tyranny. But we say 'Power to the people' and we mean the power to choose, the power to create, the power to own, the power to prosper. These are the true rights of man.

1976 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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I fought the battle for Britain, and I won.

1990 — Interview after resignation
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The greatest danger to this country is not communism, it is socialism.

1976 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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I will stay and fight for as long as I feel it is right to do so.

1989 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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What is success? It is being able to live your life in your own way, by your own rules, and to achieve your own goals.

1980s — Quoted in 'The Wit and Wisdom of Margaret Thatcher'
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I am not a wet, I am a warrior.

1980 — Reported anecdote about her response to being called a 'wet'
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The spirit of enterprise is the spirit of freedom.

1983 — Speech to the Institute of Directors
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There are still people who believe that the state should provide everything. They are wrong. The state provides nothing. It only distributes what others produce.

1979 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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I came to office with one clear purpose: to get Britain back on her feet again.

1983 — Interview with The Times
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The British character has been formed by a long history of self-reliance and independence.

1982 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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We have to get back to basics: to family, to community, to self-reliance.

1980 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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I believe that the role of government is to ensure that people have the freedom to make their own choices, and then to live with the consequences of those choices.

1980s — Interview with BBC
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The only way to create wealth is to work for it.

1975 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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Britain's decline is not inevitable. It is a choice.

1976 — Speech to Conservative Party Conference
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Freedom is indivisible. If you give it to one, you have to give it to all.

1985 — Speech to the US Congress
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