When people begin to talk about "our island story" my hackles rise. It is deluded and conservative.

For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before.

One of the ideals [Margaret Thatcher] grew up with was self-denial and postponement of gratification, and yet she went about to create a greedy, short-term society. It is a paradox.

It is all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it’s no good at all if you don’t have a plan for tomorrow.

This was an idea peculiar to Camille, Maximilien thought, that the worse things get, the better they get. No one else seems to think this way.

[Margaret Thatcher] aroused such strong loathing in so many people. That's the fact that interests me.

[Margaret Thatcher] was always talking about what the prudent housewife should do and what the prudent housewife knew.