Маргарет Тэтчер цитаты

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„Единственный способ взобраться на вершину лестницы – преодолевать ступеньку за ступенькой, по одной за раз. И в процессе этого подъема Вы внезапно обнаружите у себя все необходимые качества, навыки и умения, нужные для достижения успеха, которыми Вы, вроде бы, никогда не обладали.“

„Дом должен быть центром, но не границей мира женщины.“

„Я исключительно терпелива, если в конечном итоге всё выйдет по-моему.“

„Делать всё с открытым сердцем — не самая хорошая идея. Сердце должно оставаться закрытым, так оно лучше функционирует.“

„Если женщина проявляет характер, про нее говорят «вредная баба». Если характер проявляет мужчина, про него говорят: «Он хороший парень».“

„Если вы хотите что-либо услышать, спросите мужчину. Если вы хотите что-либо сделать, попросите женщину.“

„Такой вещи, как общество, не существует. Есть отдельные мужчины, отдельные женщины, и есть семьи.“

„Сегодня у женщин есть много возможностей проявить себя: некоторые из нас даже управляют странами. Но, говоря по чести, нам больше идёт ридикюль, чем штык.“

„Богатство страны не обязательно строится на собственных природных ресурсах, оно достижимо даже при их полном отсутствии. Самым главным ресурсом является человек. Государству лишь нужно создать основу для расцвета таланта людей.“

„Составляя свое впечатление о человеке за первые десять секунд, я очень редко меняю его.“

„Инженер — это человек, который может объяснить, как работает то или иное устройство, но не может объяснить, почему оно не работает.“

„По оценкам мирового сообщества экономически целесообразно проживание на территории России 15 млн. человек.“

„Страсть к победе пылает в каждом из нас. Воля к победе — вопрос тренировки. Способ победы — вопрос чести.“

„Он так молчит, что хочется раздеться.“

„Если ты настроена только на то, чтобы кому-то нравиться, ты должна быть готова идти на компромисс по любому поводу в любое время — и ты никогда ничего не достигнешь.“

„Все лезут на Эверест для себя, но каждый поднимает над вершиной флаг своей страны.“

„Есть только один способ быть руководителем: это когда руководитель идет в добровольное рабство к руководимым, а не наоборот. Если же в его поведении появляется пусть даже одна сотая претензий на какое-либо преимущество перед ними или привилегии, то рано или поздно эти 0,01 вырастают в подавление, деспотию и тиранию.“

„90% наших забот касается того, что никогда не случится.“

„Не скажу, чтобы мне повезло. Просто я заслужила это.“

„Без экономической свободы никакой другой свободы быть не может.“

„Нужно хорошо изучить своего врага, тогда однажды можно превратить его в друга.“

„Чтобы выиграть сражение, его иногда приходится давать дважды.“

„Если те, кто меня критикует, увидели бы, как я шагаю по волнам Темзы, они сказали бы: это только потому, что она не умеет плавать.“

„Вовсе не обязательно соглашаться с собеседником, чтобы найти с ним общий язык.“

„Европа была создана историей. Америка – философией.“

„Не следует беззастенчиво лгать; но иногда необходима уклончивость.“

„Невозможно понять всех, если не прислушаться к каждому.“

„Европейский союз принципиально не может быть «демократической» структурой: попытки достичь этой иллюзорной цели на деле ведут к дальнейшему ущемлению бедных стран…“

„Нет ни малейшего смысла быть жалкой мягкой субстанцией в кресле. Разве не так?“

„Быть сильной — это как быть леди. Если надо говорить об этом, значит ты такой не являешься.“

„Все мужчины слабы, а слабее всех джентльмены.“

„Не важно, сколько болтают мои министры, лишь бы они делали то, что я говорю.“

„Сам черт не разберет, отчего у нас быстрее подвигаются те, которые идут назад.“

„Никто бы и не помнил о «добром самаритянине», если бы у него были только благие намерения. У него также были и деньги.“

„Всем в своей жизни я обязана моему отцу, и это необычайно интересно, так как те вещи, которые я усвоила в маленьком городке, в очень скромной семье, – это именно те вещи, которые, как мне кажется, помогли победить на выборах.“

„Если вы не хотите ехать в этом поезде, то не важно, быстро он идет или медленно.“

„Персональным нападкам на меня только радуюсь. Значит, других политических аргументов у противника уже не осталось.“

„Это потрясающе — иметь на руках реальный кризис, после того как половина твоей политической жизни ушла на всякие скучные вещи вроде охраны среды!“

„Я останусь до тех пор, пока не устану. А пока Британия во мне нуждается, я никогда не устану.“

„Вежливость сегодня ценится все дороже, нахальство вообще не имеет цены.“

„Конечно, банальности существуют. Они существуют просто потому, что отражают правду.“

„Лечить застарелые британские болезни социализмом — это как лечить лейкемию пиявками.“

„Изобретательность американцев при строительстве многих зданий – их линии, детали,
материалы, формы, сама их общая структура – завораживает меня.“

“I have always gone about this business on the basis that one cannot have a partnership unless there is equity among partners. Equity, of course, is historically a British concept, but I think that it is one that we bring to the [European] Community.”

“The habit of ubiquitous interventionism, combining pinprick strikes by precision weapons with pious invocations of high principle, would lead us into endless difficulties. Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.”

“We Conservatives…are realists. We know that the British are one of the most creative and gifted peoples on earth. But we also know that the British are individualists, who do not respond to state direction and control. We like leadership—yes. But, above all, we like freedom.”

“Oh, but you know, you do not achieve anything without trouble, ever.”

“I started life with two great advantages: no money, and good parents.”

“Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.”

“I sometimes think the Labour Party is like a pub where the mild is running out. If someone doesn't do something soon, all that's left will be bitter. (Laughter). And all that's bitter will be Left.”

“They are arrayed against every principle for which we stand. So when the Soviet leaders jail a writer, or a priest, or a doctor or a worker, for the crime of speaking freely, it is not only for humanitarian reasons that we should be concerned. For these acts reveal a regime that is afraid of truth and liberty; it dare not allow its people to enjoy the freedoms we take for granted, and a nation that denies those freedoms to its own people will have few scruples in denying them to others. If detente is to progress then it ought to mean that the Soviet authorities relax their ruthless opposition to all forms and expressions of dissent.”

“You cannot build a great nation or brotherhood of man by spreading envy or hatred.”

“Human rights did not begin with the French Revolution… [they] really stem from a mixture of Judaism and Christianity… [we English] had 1688, our quiet revolution, where Parliament exerted its will over the King… it was not the sort of Revolution that France's was…'Liberty, equality, fraternity' – they forgot obligations and duties I think. And then of course the fraternity went missing for a long time.”

“Don't you think that's the way to persuade more companies to come to this region and get more jobs—because I want them—for the people who are unemployed. Not always standing there as moaning minnies.”

“The United States has no socialist party, or no socialist party has been in power. That is the reason why it has always been the country of last resort for every currency.”

“We had to make certain that violence and intimidation and impossible demands could not win. There would have been neither freedom not order in Britain if we had given in to violence. There would have been no hope for any prosperous industry if people had gone on strike, really, for bigger and bigger subsidies from the tax-payers, because in the end it is the tax-payers who pay these subsidies. So that is over.”

“From France to the Philippines, from Jamaica to Japan, from Malaysia to Mexico, from Sri Lanka to Singapore, privatisation is on the move…The policies we have pioneered are catching on in country after country. We Conservatives believe in popular capitalism—believe in a property-owning democracy. And it works! … The great political reform of the last century was to enable more and more people to have a vote. Now the great Tory reform of this century is to enable more and more people to own property. Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation. We Conservatives are returning power to the people. That is the way to one nation, one people.”

“The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election is he? Oh, if I were going to cut and run I'd have gone after the Falklands. Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Couldn't take it? Couldn't stand it? Right now inflation is lower than it has been for thirteen years, a record the right hon. Gentleman couldn't begin to touch!”

“Americans and Europeans alike sometimes forget how unique is the United States of America. No other nation has been created so swiftly and successfully. No other nation has been built upon an idea – the idea of liberty. No other nation has so successfully combined people of different races and nations within a single culture. Both the founding fathers of the United States and successive waves of immigrants to your country were determined to create a new identity. Whether in flight from persecution or from poverty, the huddled masses have, with few exceptions, welcomed American values, the American way of life and American opportunities. And America herself has bound them to her with powerful bonds of patriotism and pride. The European nations are not and can never be like this. They are the product of history and not of philosophy. You can construct a nation on an idea; but you cannot reconstruct a nation on the basis of one.”

“Our religion teaches us that every human being is unique and must play his part in working out his own salvation. So whereas socialists begin with society, and how people can be fitted in, we start with Man, whose social and economic relationship are just part of his wider existence. Because we see man as a spiritual being, we utterly reject the Marxist view, which gives pride of place to economics…The religious tradition values economic activity, how we earn our living, create wealth, but warns against obsession with it, warns against putting it above all else. Money is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.”

“Let me say this, if you want someone weak you don't want me, there are plenty of others to choose from.”

“When the ANC says that they will target British companies, this shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is. I fought terrorism all my life and if more people fought it, and we were all more successful, we should not have it and I hope that everyone in this hall will think it is right to go on fighting terrorism. They will if they believe in democracy.”

“There really is no alternative.”

“We may suffer from a British sickness now, but we have a British constitution and it's still sound, and we have British hearts and a British will to win through. I believe in Britain. I believe in the British people. I believe in our future.”

“We fly the British flag, not these awful things you are putting on tails.”

“Clear. Decisive. Purposeful.”

“We support the right of women to choose our own lives for ourselves. If women wish to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists, politicians, we should have the same opportunities as men, more and more we do…But many women wish to devote themselves mainly to raising a family and running a home. And we should have that choice too. Very few jobs can compare in long-term importance and satisfaction with that of housewife and mother. For the family is the building block of society. It is a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest. It encompasses the whole of society. It fashions our beliefs. It is the preparation for the rest of our life. And women run it.”

“The bomb attack on the Grand Hotel early this morning was first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent unsuspecting men and women staying in Brighton for our Conservative Conference…But the bomb attack clearly signified more than this. It was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our Conference; It was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty's democratically-elected Government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined—is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.”

“In this country over the last five years pay has doubled, whereas output has slightly fallen. That is totally different from the position with many of our competitors. Pay in those countries has gone up hand in hand with productivity. Consequently, they have the jobs and we have a larger proportion of the unemployment.”

“Our people will never keep the Red Flag flying here. There is only one banner that Britain flies, the one that has kept flying for centuries—the red, white and blue.”

“We heard moving accounts from two working miners about just what they have to face as they try to make their way to work. The sheer bravery of those men and thousands like them who kept the mining industry alive is beyond praise. “Scabs” their former workmates call them. Scabs? They are lions!”

“The choice facing the nation is between two totally different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism and bring together men and women from all walks of life who share a belief in freedom.”