"I know about these problems [high unemployment]. I grew up in the thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and he looked for work. And he found it!" Sep 1981

Norman Tebbit

"An English home - grey twilight poured
On dewy pastures, dewy trees,
Softer than sleep - all things in order stored,
A haunt of ancient peace."

 "Next to excellence is the appreciation of it."

If a woman like Eva Peron with no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with all the ideals I have. I don't mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say. 1987

Oh yes, I hope to go on and on. (to whether she would seek a fourth term, if she won the 3rd on 11.05.87)

There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are famiies. 31.08.1987

To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catch-phrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: you turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning. Addressing conference, 11.10.1980

Just rejoice at that news and congratulate our forces and the Marines. Good night gentemen. Rejoice. Rejoice! 25.04.1982 South Georgia is recaptured.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

Victorian values - those were the values when our country became great, not only internationally but at home. 17.01.83

There is no easy popularity ... I believe people accept that there is no alternative. Margaret Thatcher 21.05.1980

I think, historically, the term 'Thatcherism' will be seen as a compliment. 1985

I like mr Gorbachev, we can do business together. 17.12.1984

We must try to find ways to starve the terrorists of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. Mags, 07.07.1985

"I asked the Admiral [Sir Henry Leach, First Sea lord]: 'If this invasion happens, precisely what can we do?' I won't forget his answer. Quite calmly and confidently he replied: 'I can put together a task force of destroyers, frigates, landing craft and suport vessels, to be led by the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible. It can be ready in 48 hours. All I need is your authorisation.' I gave it."

"We take the same view in the United States and Britain that our first duty to freedom is to defend our own, and our second duty is to try somehow to enlarge the frontiers of freedom so that other nations might have the right to chose it." 1982

"Rejoice, just rejoice!" 25.-4.82 after re-capture of S Georgia

"Gentlemen, shall we join the ladies?" After meal in City Hall commemorating the Falklands victory.

"No, you turn! The lady's not for turning."

After signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement: "I want to offer hope, especially to the young in Northern Ireland, that the circle of violence can be broken." 1985.

"I haven't much time today. Only enough time to explode and have my way." [Reminiscences of Rifkind on cabinet meetings]

"I like Mr Gorbachev - we can do business together." (1986)

"Obsolete weapons do not deter."

Of her 1987 Chequers meeting with Gorbachev: "In retrospect, it is possible to see that this analysis [that Gorbachev would not transcend his Marxist indoctrination] was flawed by a confusion between the intentions of Mr Gorbacev, which at any particular ime were limited by both his way of thinking and by the circumstances of the moment, and the effects of his reforms, which unleashed forces which could sweep away the Soviet system and the Soviet state." Thatcher memoirs

Bruges Speech, Sept 1998: "We must never forget that, east of the Iron Curtain, peoples who once enjoyed a full share of European culture, freedom and identity have been cut off from their roots. We shall always look to Warsaw, prague and Budapest as great European cities."

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

We have not successfully rolled back the forntiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels. 20.09.1988

"Mr. Delors wants the European Parliament to be the parliament, the Council of Ministers the Senate and the Commision the Executive. No, no, no."

"That would be federalism by the back Delors"

"I fight on, I fight to win." 10.90

"It's a funny old world" 10.90

"It's his nature not to have said anything nice about me. But essentially he's a good man. History will be kind to him." (on Kinnock, 20.05.92)

"Maastricht is a treaty too far." 28.06.92.

"No Western nation has to build a wall around itself to keep its people in."

"I think that most British people agree, that NATO has kept the peace successfully for 40 years. It is needed as much in the future as it was in the past. It is vital that we keep in step with America and Canada on NATO. I agree that we must modernise our forces, including nuclear forces. NATO has already agreed that they must be modernised, on the basis that obsolete weapons do not deter. What is at issue is the precise timing of that modernisation. I shall discuss that with Mr. Gorbavchev. The Russians have already modernised their short-range nuclear weapons. Bruges Speech, 20.09.1988

"Crime is crime is crime. It is not political, it is crime." [Of H-block protest for political status]

"An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do."

Dylan Thomas

 "Ideally there should be one single organisation responsible for all security intelligence within the country. If there is more than one, it is almost impossible to define the respective responsibilities of each organisation or to devise any means of co-ordinating their activities. .., agents, especially the less reliable, will get themselves on to the payroll of several organisations and feed them the same unreliable information. Such information seemingly confirmed from different sources will be accepted as authentic. The different organisations will withhold information from one another in order to obtain the credit for themselves. A promising line of intelligence may well be cut inadvertently, or even intentionally, by another organisation. Mutual suspicion and jealousies will arise, quite likely with the result that the separate organisations merely end up spying on each other. .. The best organisation to be responsible for all internal security intelligence work is the special branch of a police force rather than a completely separate organisation. It is a great advantage if intelligence officers have police powers and are able to call when necessary on other branches of the police for support and assistance for developing their intelligence work."

"At midnight on May 20, the fleet glided down Falkland Sound. Faces blackened and bayonets sharpened, the Royal Marines and paratroopers poured ashore on to the beaches at San Carlos Water. Now began the long march to Port Stanley."

"Have just heard that BBC World Service has just reported Teal Inlet is 'Headquarters of force atacking Stanley'. I am absolutely fed up with hearing my plans broadcast on BBC News. I do not know how this information is getting back, but press must be suspect. Please could you do everything in your power o prevent press sending uncensored copy back to UK."

Commander, 3 Cdo, 04.06.1892 Brig Julian Thompson

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour."

Henry David Thoreau

"I am the leader of one country, which has two alphabets, three languages, four religions, five nationalitites, six republics, and is surrounded by seven neighbours. A country in which live eight ethnic minorities."

"Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it."

Mark Twain