quotes by Stateswoman Quotes

“Had I faltered we would have neither the success nor the international reputation we have. Yet when a woman is strong she is strident. If a man is strong, he's a good guy.”

“Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity.”

“Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.”

“Both the President and Mr Gorbachev have said that they want to see a world without nuclear weapons. I cannot see a world without nuclear weapons. Let me be practical about it. The knowledge is there to make them. So do not go too hard for that pie in the sky because, while everyone would like to see it, I do not believe it is going to come about.”

“I said, I'll put on weight. And I started having massages, taking cod-liver oil, and eating twice as much. But I didn't even gain an ounce. I'd made up my mind that on the day the engagement was announced I'd be fatter, and I didn't gain an ounce. Then I went to Mussoorie, which is a health resort, and I ignored the doctors' instructions; I invented my own regime and gained weight. Just the opposite of what I'd like now. Now I have the problem of keeping slim. Still I manage. I don't know if you realize I'm a determined woman.”

“The meek may one day inherit the earth, but not the headlines.”

“I might have preferred iron - but bronze will do. It won't rust. This time I hope, the head will stay on.”

“There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it.”

“Every new experience brings its own maturity and a greater clarity of vision.”

“As I always say, I do not wish you an easy time, but I wish you that whatever difficulty you may have, you will overcome it.”

“There are some remarkable parallels between basketball and politics. Michael Jordan has already mastered the skill most needed for political success: how to stay aloft without visible means of support.”

“If you have a sense of purpose and a sense of direction, I believe people will follow you. Democracy isn't just about deducing what the people want. Democracy is leading the people as well.”

“We should not mourn for men of high ideals. Rather we should rejoice that we had the privilege of having had them with us, to inspire us by their radiant personalities.”

“Whether manufactured by black, white, brown or yellow hands, a widget remains a widget – and it will be bought anywhere if the price and quality are right. The market is a more powerful and more reliable liberating force than government can ever be.”

“Socialists don't like ordinary people choosing, for they might not choose Socialism.”

“Home is where you come to when you've got nothing better to do.”

“You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.”

“When I was young, I was very selfish, now not any more.”

“I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.”

“To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.”

“One only gets to the top rung on the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly, all sorts of powers, all sorts of abilities which you thought never belonged to you - suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, 'Well, I'll have a go, too.'”

“At no point, at a very important point: that of having convinced the Indians that they can do things.”

“The acid test of politics is not what you say at the hustings, but what you actually do in government.”

“I think one should do what seems right. And if what seems right involves danger...well, one must risk the danger.”

“I am not a compromiser on fundamentals.”

“Wars are not caused by the buildup of weapons. They are caused when an aggressor believes he can achieve his objectives at an acceptable price.”

“On the one hand, the rich look askance at our continuing poverty - on the other, they warn us against their own methods.”

“Individualism has come in for an enormous amount of criticism over the years. It still does. It is widely assumed to be synonymous with selfishness...But the main reason why so many people in power have always disliked individualism is because it is individualists who are ever keenest to prevent the abuse of authority.”

“When I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, it'll be called rent-a-spine”

“I'm certainly not tired - work doesn't tire people, it's getting bored that's tiring.”

“In order to unscramble some eggs the leader gotta have some balls”

“We are a British nation with British characteristics. Every country can take some small minorities and in many ways they add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened.”

“If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.”

“Young people ought not to be idle, it is very bad for them.”

“When will Labour learn that you cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels.”

“If one generation is expected to carry an excessive burden on behalf of another, it will seek by every means to avoid it. It will either demand that past promises are broken, or it will not work, or it will not pay taxes, or the most talented people will leave. Socialist governments which have tried to tax 'till the pips squeak' have ample experience of that.”

“They [Federalist European Politicians] divide their time between court room, prison and debating chamber - giving a whole new meaning to the term 'conviction politician'.”

“I'm certainly not a workaholic.”

“There are too many people who imagine that there is something sophisticated about always believing the best of those who hate your country, and the worst of those who defend it.”

“What Britain needs is an iron lady.”

“In India's distant past, when the population was low, the blessing given a woman was, 'May you have many children.' Most of our epics and literature stress this wish, and the idea that a woman should have many children hasn't declined.”

“There are only moments of happiness - from contentment to ecstacy.”

“Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.”

“Popularity is not a gurantee of quality.”

“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”

“It is no exaggeration to describe plain English as a fundamental tool of government.”

“Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance... and courage.”

“Defeats are always pitiful. Victories are always last resources.”

“I always defended my father, as a child, and I think I'm still defending him - his policies at least. Oh, he wasn't at all a politician, in no sense of the word. He was sustained in his work only by a blind faith in India - he was preoccupied in such an obsessive way by the future of India. We understood each other.”

“If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage.”