We very much hope that as we get growth that we can reduce the burden of taxation, that we can reduce income tax and increase the amount of genuine free enterprise and business enterprise... This is going... toward the restoration of the personal responsibility, the independence, with every man a property owner, every man a capitalist.
Margaret ThatcherIn those days one advantage of being a woman was that there was a basic courtesy towards us on which we could draw - something which today's feminists have largely dissipated.
Margaret ThatcherWhat? What am I 'bound to be feeling?' People donโt think anymore. They feel. 'How are you feeling? No, I donโt feel comfortable. Iโm sorry, we as a group weโre feelingโฆ.' One of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas. That interests me. Ask me what Iโm thinking.
Margaret ThatcherSocialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them.
Margaret ThatcherEurope is... a monument to the vanity of individuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure.
Margaret ThatcherI think our support for the EEC has been very half-hearted. You really cannot join any group of nations and spend all your time criticising it. The EEC is free Europe getting together. Had we had some vision like that after the first world war , we might never had the second ... my son does not have to go and fight as his father had to fight. Surely that is the most valuable thing of all, the reason for keeping Europe together.
Margaret Thatcher