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

Margaret Thatcher

We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.

Margaret Thatcher

The woman's mission is not to enhance the masculine spirit, but to express the feminine; hers is not to preserve a man-made world, but to create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element into all of its activities.

Margaret Thatcher

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

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

Margaret Thatcher

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

Margaret Thatcher


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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
Margaret Thatcher

I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together.

Margaret Thatcher

• Biography of Margaret Thatcher