231 Quotes filtered by margaret thatcher
Cecil, these have been such happy hours. We have done such a lot for the country together and we will do much more.
Margaret Thatcher 10/10/1983
To Cecil Parkinson on his resignation over the Keays affair
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about), Resignations
We all make mistakes now and then. I think it was a mistake, and Jim Prior was very, very sorry indeed for it, and very apologetic. But you don't just sack a chap for one mistake.
Margaret Thatcher 22/01/1980
On Jim Prior after his criticism of British Steel management
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
John Gummer just did not have the political clout or credibility to rally the troops. I had appointed him as a sort of nightwatchman, but he seemed to have to sleep on the job.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On John Gummer
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
He was the extrovert's extrovert. He had prodigious energy; he was and remains the most popular speaker the Party has ever had.Unfortunately, as it turned out, Jeffrey's political judgment did not always match his enormous energy and fund-raising ability: ill-considered remarks got him and the Party into somewhat awkward scrapes, but he always got himself out of them.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Jeffrey Archer
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
He was never popular with the general public who saw what appeared to be a chain-smoking, dishevelled, languid aristocrat; by contrast, he was the object of universal respect and great affection from those who worked with him, above all his officials. Nick had those virtues which seem only to be cultivated in private: he was completely unaffected; he treated people and arguments on their merits; he was incapable of guile; and he was always seeking to take on the unrewarding and popular tasks.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Nicholas Ridley
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
Nigel was secretive. I think he was a man of many complexes, he was also a man of many, many talents, sometime a very creative person will also have great drawbacks. He did some very imaginative budgets in income tax. He wrote the best budgets as far as style is concerned that we've ever had. I always took the view that you had to take the rough with the smooth. If you have someone with great talent and ability you have to take some of the drawbacks too.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Nigel Lawson
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
Geoffrey was regularly bullied in debate by Denis Healey. But by thorough mastery of his brief and an ability to marshal arguments and advice from different sources, he had shown that beneath a deceptively mild exterior he had the makings of the fine Chancellor he was to become. Some of the toughest decisions were to fall to him. He never flinched. In my view, these were his best political years.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Sir Geoffrey Howe
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
I will not take any criticism of Bernard. I could wish that every one of my Ministers had done their job to the same per centage of excellence that Bernard did his.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Bernard Ingham
Category: Spin
Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing . . . There are no hills to go down unless you start from the top.
Margaret Thatcher
Category: Conservative Thought, Inspiration
In the Conservative Party we have no truck with outmoded Marxist doctrine about class warfare. For us it is not who you are, who your family is or where you come from that matters, but what you are and what you can do for your country that counts.
Margaret Thatcher 1984
Category: Conservative Party, Marxism
This business of the working class is on its way out I think. After all, aren't I working class? I work jolly hard, I can tell you.
Margaret Thatcher 1969
Category: Class
Today I have lost one of my dearest friends, England one of her greatest men. Keith Joseph understood that it was necessary to win again the intellectual argument for freedom, and that to do this we must start from first principles. He was in many ways an unlikely revolutionary. For all his towering intellect, he was deeply humble. He spoke out boldly, however hostile the audience. Yet he hated to give offence. Above all, his integrity shone out in everything he said and did. His best memorial lies in the younger generations of politicians whom he inspired. But for me he is irreplaceable.
Margaret Thatcher 10/12/1994
Tribute to Sir Keith Joseph on the day of his death
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
I want to get totally rid of class distinction. As someone put it one of the papers this morning: Marks and Spencer have triumphed over Karl Marx and Engels.
Margaret Thatcher 06/05/1985
Geoffrey's personal style was very different from mine. He has a lovely speaking voice, a quiet speaking voice. But at Cabinet we always reported on foreign affairs - we always had this quiet voice. It was so quiet sometimes I had to say 'speak up'. And he gave it in a way which wasn't exactly scintillating. And you know, foreign affairs are interesting. They affect everything that happened to our own way of life, and they are exciting. And so we just diverged.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
On Sir Geoffrey Howe
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
I'm making some changes, Geoffrey, and they will involve the Foreign Office.
Margaret Thatcher 24/07/1989
telling Sir Geoffrey Howe of his sacking
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about), Reshuffles
He has given this country great service. He is the only one who really thinks the same way as I do.
Margaret Thatcher 09/04/1986
On Cecil Parkinson
Category: Conservative Politicians (quotes about)
The West could have no better or braver champion.
Margaret Thatcher 11/10/1985
Category: Ronald Reagan (quotes about)
I call the Conservative Party now to a crusade. Not only the Conservative Party. I appeal to all those men and women of good will who do not want a Marxist future for themselves or their children or their children's children. For this is not just a fight about national solvency. It is a fight about the very foundations of the social order. It is a crusade not merely to put a temporary block on socialism but to stop its onward march once and for all.
Margaret Thatcher 09/10/1976
Category: Conservative Party, Conservative Thought
Is there conscience in the Kremlin? Do they ever ask themselves what is the purpose of life? What is it all for?... No. Their creed is barren of conscience, immune to the promptings of good and evil.
Margaret Thatcher 30/09/1983
Category: Communism
The messages on our banners in 1979 - freedom, opportunity, family, enterprise, ownership - are now inscribed on the banners in Leipzig, Warsaw, Budapest and even Moscow.
Margaret Thatcher 10/1989
Category: Cold War
