The Iron Lady (2011)
Meryl Streep: Margaret Thatcher
Photos
Quotes
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Margaret Thatcher : 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 character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that. And I think I am fine.
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Margaret Thatcher : "How do you feel?" / "Oh, I don't feel comfortable." / "Oh, I'm so sorry, we the group, we're feeling..." Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.
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Alexander Haig : So you are proposing to go to war over these islands. They're thousands of miles away, a handful of citizens, politically and economically insignificant, if you'll excuse me.
Margaret Thatcher : Just like Hawaii, I imagine.
Alexander Haig : I'm sorry?
Margaret Thatcher : 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Did America go cap in hand and ask Tojo for a peaceful negotiation of terms? Did she turn her back on her own citizens there because the islands were thousands of miles from mainland United States? No! No, no! We will stand on principle, or we shall not stand at all.
Alexander Haig : But Margaret, with all due respect, when one has been to war...
Margaret Thatcher : With all due respect, sir, I have done battle every single day of my life and many men have underestimated me before. This lot seem bound to do the same, but they will rue the day.
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Margaret Thatcher : It used to be about trying to *do* something. Now it's about trying to *be* someone.
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Margaret Thatcher : We will stand on principle... or we will not stand at all.
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Margaret Thatcher : Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, because they become actions. Watch your actions, because they become habits. Watch your habits, because they become your character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become.
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Margaret Thatcher : It's time to get up! It's time go to work! It's time to put the great back into Great Britain!
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Margaret Thatcher : Sink it!
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Margaret Thatcher : Where did you go?
Denis Thatcher : South Africa.
Margaret Thatcher : Ah, yes.
Denis Thatcher : How many days passed before you realized I'd gone? Probably had to ask the cleaning woman where I was.
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Margaret Thatcher : This lot seems bound to do the same... but they will rue the day.
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Margaret Thatcher : [switching off television] I don't recognize myself.
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Denis Thatcher : One likes to make an effort. A snifter?
Margaret Thatcher : You're dead, Denis.
Denis Thatcher : Ah well, if I'm dead, who are you talking to? Shall we dance?
Margaret Thatcher : Oh...
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Margaret Thatcher : The Trade Union Movement was founded to protect workers. Now it persecutes them. It stops them from working. It is killing jobs and it is bringing this country to its knees. I say enough. It's time to get up. It's time to go to work. It's time to put the Great back into Great Britain!
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Jim Prior : There's a perception, Margaret rightly or wrongly, that we are now completely out of touch with the country.
Margaret Thatcher : Really.
[Silence]
Margaret Thatcher : How much is a pack of Lurpak?
Francis Pym : Lurpak?
Margaret Thatcher : Butter, Francis.
[silence]
Margaret Thatcher : Forty two pence. Anchor butter is forty pence. Flora margarine, still the cheapest, is thirty eight pence. I can assure you I am not out of touch.
Ian Gilmour : [whispers] Grocer's Daughter
Margaret Thatcher : Sorry. I didn't hear you. What did you say?
Ian Gilmour : Nothing, Prime Minister. Nothing.
Margaret Thatcher : No, No, please. Don't try to hide you opinions. Goodness me, I'd much rather you were honest and straightforward about them - instead of continuously and damagingly leaking them to the press.
[silence]
Margaret Thatcher : Well?
Francis Pym : Well, people can't pay their mortgages.
Ian Gilmour : The manufacturing industry is practically on its knees.
Francis Pym : Honest, hard-working, decent people are losing their homes. It's terribly shameful.
Ian Gilmour : The point is, Prime Minister, that we must moderate the pace...
Michael Heseltine : ...if we're even to have a hope of winning the next election.
Margaret Thatcher : Ah. Worried about our careers, are we?
Ian Gilmour , Jim Prior , Francis Pym : [All gentlemen turns their back at Margaret] That's quite absurd.
Margaret Thatcher : Gentlemen, if we don't cut spending we will be bankrupt. Yes the medicine is harsh but the patient requires it in order to live. Shall we withhold the medicine? No! We are not wrong. We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation.The people of this country chose us because they believe we can restore the health of the British economy and we will do just that! Barring a failure of nerve.
