Margaret Thatcher Zitate

seite 12

„So etwas wier die Gesellschaft gibt es nicht. Es gibt nur einzelne Männer und Frauen und es gibt Familen. Keine Regierung kann existieren, ohne dass die Menschen zunächst für sich selbst sorgen.“

„Es stört mich nicht, was meine Minister sagen, solange sie tun, was ich ihnen sage.“

„Das Rückgrat ist bei manchen Politikern unterentwickelt – vielleicht weil es so wenig benutzt wird.“

„Wir bitten nicht die Gemeinschaft oder sonst jemanden um Geld. Wir wollen einfach unser eigenes Geld zurück.“

„Nicht einer würde sich an den Guten Samariter erinnern, wenn der nur gute Absichten gehabt hätte. Er hatte auch Geld.“

„Meinen Erfolg habe ich vor allem der zuverlässigen Unterstützung durch meinen Mann zu verdanken.“

„Wenn Sie in der Politik etwas sagen wollen, fragen Sie einen Mann. Wenn Sie etwas erledigen möchten, fragen Sie eine Frau.“

„Wenn Sie in der Politik etwas gesagt haben wollen, fragen Sie einen Mann. Wenn Sie etwas getan haben wollen, fragen Sie eine Frau.“

„Der Thatcherismus wird überleben, weil er eine Sache des gesunden Menschenverstandes ist.“

„Die Dame lässt sich nicht verbiegen.“

„Es ist nicht Sache eines Politikers, allen zu gefallen.“

„Folge nicht anderen, lass andere dir folgen.“

„Für mich bedeutete die Wiedervereinigung ein völlig verändertes Europa. Genau das ist eingetreten.“

„Wenn ich etwas in der Politik verabscheue, dann den Typ des Aals, der sich vor lauter Geschmeidigkeit am liebsten selbst in sein Hinterteil beißen würde.“

„Europa wurde von der Geschichte gegründet. Amerika von der Philosophie.“

„Konsens erscheint mir als ein Prozess des Überbordwerfens aller Überzeugungen, Prinzipien, Werte und Grundsätze.“

„Jede Frau, die versteht einen Haushalt zu führen, wird dem Verständnis des Problems, ein Land zu führen, näher sein.“

„Wenn man die Hälfte seines politischen Lebens mit stumpfsinnigen Angelegenheiten wie der Umwelt zu tun hatte, ist es aufregend, eine richtige Krise an der Hand zu haben.“

„So etwas wie eine Gesellschaft gibt es nicht.“

„Wir haben aufgehört, eine Nation auf dem Rückzug zu sein.“

„Rückzug ist manchmal eine erforderliche Taktik. Als dauerhafte Politik aber nagt er an der Seele.“

„Zweimal haben wir die Deutschen geschlagen. Jetzt sind sie wieder da.“

„Es ist doch klar: Ihr Deutschen wollt nicht Deutschland in Europa verankern. Ihr wollt den Rest Europas in Deutschland verankern.“

„Geld fällt nicht vom Himmel. Man muss es sich hier auf Erden verdienen.“

„Folge nie der Menge, nur weil du Angst hast, anders zu sein.“

„Ich verschwende keine Zeit auf Argumente.“

„Ich glaube nicht, dass es zu meinen Lebzeiten einen weiblichen Premierminister geben wird.“

„Man muss eine Schlacht oft mehr als einmal schlagen, ehe man sie gewonnen hat.“

„Toleranz lernt man am besten in der Ehe. Unverheiratete Politiker haben davon keine Ahnung.“

„Ich kämpfe, ich kämpfe, um zu gewinnen.“

„Ihr könnt umkehren, wenn ihr wollt. Die Lady wird nicht umkehren.“

„Halten Sie mal die Luft an.“

„So leicht sind wir nicht zu dominieren, wir bestimmt nicht.“

„Wenn ich mich noch mal entscheiden könnte, würde ich nicht wieder in die Politik gehen. Das hat meine Familie kaputtgemacht.“

„Wir fordern einen Großteil unseres Geldes zurück.“

“I was determined to accept the invitation I had earlier received from General Jaruzelski to go to Poland. I always felt the greatest affection and admiration for this nation of indomitable patriots, whose traditions and distinctive identity the Prussians, Austrians and Russians (in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and the Nazis and communists (in the twentieth century) had sought vainly to extinguish. I could not forget the Polish airmen who had fought with the RAF against Nazism, and how a war begun over the freedom of Poland had ended leaving them trapped under tyranny.”

“The press was full of outraged criticism of the community charge from Conservative supporters. What hurt me was that the very people who had always looked to me for protection from exploitation by the socialist state were those who were suffering most. These were the people who were just above the level at which community charge benefit stopped but who were by no means well off and who had scrimped and saved to buy their homes.”

“I never confused the leader page of the Guardian with vox populi.”

“I was lectured on my political morality, on my preferring British jobs to black lives, on my lack of concern for human rights. One after the other, their accusations became more vitriolic and personal until I could stand it no longer. To their palpable alarm I began to tell my African critics a few home truths. I noted that they were busily trading with South Africa at the same time as they were attacking me for refusing to apply sanctions. I wondered when they intended to show similar concern about abuses in the Soviet Union, with which of course they often had not just trade but close political links. I wondered when I was going to hear them attack terrorism. I reminded them of their own less than impressive record on human rights. And when the representative from Uganda took me to task for racial discrimination, I turned on him and reminded him of the Asians which Uganda had thrown out on racial grounds, many of whom had come to settle in my constituency in North London, where they were model citizens and doing very well.”

“I have enormous admiration for the Jewish people, inside or outside Israel. There have always been Jewish members of my staff and indeed my Cabinet. In fact I just wanted a Cabinet of clever, energetic people – and frequently that turned out to be the same thing. My old constituency of Finchley has a large Jewish population. In the thirty-three years I represented it I never had a Jew come in poverty and desperation to one of my constituency surgeries. They had always been looked after by their own community.”

“Unlike some of my colleagues, I never ceased to believe that, other things being equal, the level of unemployment was related to the extent of trade union power. The unions had priced many of their members out of jobs by demanding excessive wages for insufficient output, so making British goods uncompetitive.”

“Socialism is a creed of the state. It regards ordinary human beings as the raw material for its schemes of social change. But we put our faith in people—in the millions of people who spend what they earn—not what other people earn. Who make sacrifices for their young family or their elderly parents. Who help their neighbours and take care of their neighbourhoods. The sort of people I grew up with. These are the people whom I became Leader of this Party to defend.”

“The Delors report is aimed at a federal Europe, a common currency and a common economic policy, which would take many economic policies, including fiscal policy, out of the hands of the House, and that is completely unacceptable. It would also require a treaty amendment, which we do not believe would ever be passed by the House because of the lack of sovereignty that it would imply.”

“In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.”

“I believe in the British lion and I believe that the British character is lion-hearted, and I believe that it has not been lion-hearted in some of the post-War period, and I want it to get back to being lion hearted.”

“And never forget that the Marxist societies call themselves, and indeed are, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some of the aims of socialism, are the aims of a Marxist society, and they result in the subjugation of the rights of people to political theory. Because the Marxist system has become morally and materially bankrupt, citizens who live beneath its yoke see hope in our ideals. Ideals which limit the power of the State so that the varied talents and abilities of each person may flourish giving dignity and meaning to life. Ideals which respect the family, its loyalties, affections and responsibilities. Ideals where the rule of law is just and impartially administered. Those who live under the heel of Marxist tyranny look with envy at the very things we take for granted. They know that politics is about more than economics in a free society. So do we—we belong to the oldest and most enduring democratic Party in the world.”

“I am the rebel head of an establishment government.”

“To me there is only one way to judge a person, whatever his background, whatever his colour, whatever his religion, and that is what that person is, and not by his race or creed. That is what I believe in, that is what I will tell everyone and that is what I try to achieve everything.”

“It's time to get up! It's time go to work! It's time to put the great, back into Great Britain!”

“If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”

“Human rights did not begin with the French Revolution instead, they really stem from a mixture of Judaism and Christianity”

“There is no way in which one can buck the market.”