“If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.”
“If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”
“It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.”
“Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.”
“I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.”
“There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.”
“One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.”
“Pennies do not come from heave. They have to be earned here on earth.”
“Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.”
“It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.”
“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.”
“I owe nothing to Women’s Lib.”
“This lady is not for turning.”
– 11th February 1975: Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party