撒切尔夫人经典语录

Quotes of Margaret Thatcher

“I wasn’t lucky. I deserved it.” (Comment on receiving a school prize, aged nine.)

“No woman in my time will be prime minister or foreign secretary - not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister. You have to give yourself 100% to the job.” (1969, in opposition as Conservative MP for Finchley)

“It will be years - and not in my time - before a woman will lead the party or become Prime Minister” (1974)

“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” (1975)

“I stand before you tonight in my green chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, my fair hair gently waved. The Iron Lady of the Western World? Me? A cold war warrior? Well, yes - if that is how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life” (Speech in 1976 after the Kremlin dubbed her the Iron Lady)

“I am not a consensus politician. I’m a conviction politician.” (1979)

“Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.” (1979, the year she became prime minister)

“I love argument. I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me - that’s not their job.”  (1980)

“I don’t mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say.” (1980)

“To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.” (10 October 1980, Conservative party conference)

“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he had only good intentions. He had money as well.” (Television interview, 1980)

“I want my money back!” (At the European Union summit in Dublin, 1980)

“A crime is a crime is a crime” (News conference in Saudi Arabia, 1981, rejecting any view that there could be political reasons for IRA terrorism)

“When you’ve spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it’s exciting to have a real crisis on your hands.” (May 14, 1982, commenting on the Falkland Islands war)

“We knew what we had to do and we went about it and did it. Great Britain is great again” – (Comment at end of Falklands conflict)

“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman” (1982)

“I owe nothing to women’s lib” (Interview, 1982)

“State socialism is totally alien to the British character” (Interview, 1983)

“We can do business together.” (Dec. 17, 1984, speaking of Mikhail Gorbachev)

“That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared. And the fact we are gathered here, now, shocked but composed and determined, is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail” (Tory conference, 1984, a few hours after the Brighton bomb outrage which nearly killed her)

“This is a day I was not meant to see” (the Sunday following the Brighton bomb)

“We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty.” (On the 1984-85 miners’ strike)

“I think, historically, the term ‘Thatcherism’ will be seen as a compliment” (1985)

“I don’t mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say” (Interview, 1987)

“It’s a funny old world.” (Comment after her decision to quit in 27 November 1990, at her last cabinet meeting, pointing out that she had never lost an election in her life, yet had been forced to stand down)

“There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” (1987)

“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels.” (1988)

“We have become a grandmother.” (On the birth of her first grandchild, 1989)