It is no exaggeration to describe plain English as a fundamental tool of government. Margaret Thatcher More Quotes by Margaret Thatcher More Quotes From Margaret Thatcher There is a nonsense about intelligent women not being beautiful. Margaret Thatcher nonsenseintelligentbeautiful 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. Margaret Thatcher strongtakencountry To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches. Margaret Thatcher leechesdiseasetrying It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher primeinvestingyears 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 worksuccessopportunity Our children need strong families raising them with sturdy virtues, not to be smothered in the cold arms of the state. Margaret Thatcher strongchildrenneeds Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose. Margaret Thatcher essenceevilmen There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it. Margaret Thatcher partymeanbelieve Yet the basic fact remains: every regulation represents a restriction of liberty, every regulation has a cost. That is why, like marriage (in the Prayer Book's words), regulation should not "be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly" Margaret Thatcher takenprayerbook 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. Margaret Thatcher moralemediacauses For Dicey, writing in 1885, and for me reading him some seventy years later, the rule of law still had a very English, or at least Anglo-Saxon, feel to it. It was later, through Hayek's masterpieces "The Constitution of Liberty" and "Law, Legislation and Liberty" that I really came to think this principle as having wider application. Margaret Thatcher readingwritingthinking Law and order is a social service. Crime and the fear which the threat of crime induces can paralyse whole communities, keep lonely and vulnerable elderly people shut up in their homes, scar young lives and raise to cult status the swaggering violent bully who achieves predatory control over the streets. I suspect that there would be more support and less criticism than today's political leaders imagine for a large shift of resources from Social Security benefits to law and order - as long as rhetoric about getting tough on crime was matched by practice. Margaret Thatcher lonelypracticehome If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it. Margaret Thatcher donedoebelieve I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. Margaret Thatcher hard-workmotivationalpositive Communism produces neither dignity nor prosperity. It takes all power away from the people and places it in the hands of a self-appointed elite. And because it distorts and manipulates the distinctive talents of individuals rather than letting those talents flourish, it prevents progress and prosperity. Margaret Thatcher selfhandspeople If you are guided by opinion polls, you are not practicing leadership -- you are practicing followership. Margaret Thatcher followershippollsopinion I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime. Margaret Thatcher primelifetimethinking It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge. Margaret Thatcher mistakepeoplethinking What Britain needs is an iron lady. Margaret Thatcher britainironneeds If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim. Margaret Thatcher sawsswiminteresting
