Margaret Thatcher

"I have always fought for what I believed in with everything I had."

"We must never yield to defeatism."

"Democracy is not a spectator sport."

"The war for freedom will never be won by politicians; it will be won by people."

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your destiny."

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

"I stand before you tonight in my Green Woman's suit as a woman who has never, never and never again will say sorry for being a woman."

"One's life is more formed by books than by any other force I can think of."

"What Britain needs is an iron lady."

"I do not know how anyone can govern without prayer."

"The errors of that regime, both sins of commission and sins of omission, have left their mark upon the Soviet Union that now we see before us."

"The desire to win is born in most of us. The desire to excel burns in the few."

"I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph."

"Democratic nations must try once more to find common cause with each other before the enemies of democracy find common cause against us."

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

"Consensus is the absence of leadership."

"I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end."

"The Malvinas are Argentine, but they are also British."

"I've got a woman's ability to stick with a job and get on with it when everyone else is panicking, and to make out of confusion a clear, simple thing."

"Do you know that one day this will all be yours? But first, you must learn to run it properly."

"The true test of a civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, but the kind of man the country turns out."

"I am not a consensus politician. I am a conviction politician."

"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and families."

"A woman would be foolish not to use charm as a weapon; foolish too not to recognize that this weapon can be used against her."

"I owe nothing to Women's Lib. The women of Britain owe nothing to Women's Lib."

"Some consider privatization a dirty word; I do not."

"The young have always been disposable. So let us learn to accept this truth."

"We must not fall into the trap of being too clever by half."