Margaret Quotes

The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone. ~ Margaret Thatcher

Of course you have always been an idealist, and filled with your optimistic dreams; but reality must at some time obtrude, and you are now turned thirty. ~ Margaret Atwood

I think it'd be useful for parents to know kind of what is the culture of an institution. ~ Margaret Spellings

You need books to read and readers for books. ~ Margaret Stohl

You know you love someone when you cannot put into words how they make you feel. ~ Margaret Mead

Time comes in waves here, a sickness, one
day after the other rolling on;
I move up, it's called
awake, then down into the uneasy
nights but never
forward. ~ Margaret Atwood

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency. ~ Margaret Fuller

There is no greater fool than the man who thinks himself wise; no one is wiser than he who suspects he is a fool. ~ Margaret Of Valois

How did the war creep up? How did it gather itself together? What was it made from? What secrets, lies, betrayals? What loves and hatreds? What sums of money, what metals? ~ Margaret Atwood

We've taken disturbances and fluctuations and averaged them together to give us comfortable statistics. Our training has been to look for big numbers, important trends, major variances. Yet it is the slight variations - soft-spoken, even whispered at first - that we need to encourage. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

Margaret Sanger didn't just introduce the idea of birth control into our culture at large, she freed women from indenture to their bodies. ~ Roxane Gay

The very mystery of him excited her curiosity like a door that had neither lock nor key. ~ Margaret Mitchell

We Conservatives hate unemployment. ~ Margaret Thatcher

I may not survive," Roderick said, resting his hand on the small of her back,"if I wait any longer to kiss you. ~ Margaret Mallory

She said it was different, because the balance of power was equal between women so sex was an even-steven transaction. I said "even-steven" was a sexist phrase, if she was going to be like that, and anyway that argument was outdated. She said I had trivialized the issue and if I thought it was outdated, I was living with my head in the sand.
(...)
I said there was more than one way of living with your head in the sand and that if Moira thought she could create Utopia by shutting herself up in a women-only enclave she was sadly mistaken. Men were not just going to go away, I said. You couldn't just ignore them . ~ Margaret Atwood

But you know the truth of magic. The greatest power springs only from suffering. ~ Margaret Rogerson

Those in powerless positions aren't about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress. ~ Margaret Heffernan

Then there was David, lording it up at Buckingham Palace, thinking he was king of the shit heap. That guy was definitely nuts, like every dictator that had gone before him. Nero, Caligula, Henry the Eighth, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Margaret Thatcher, Colonel Gaddafi, that crazy North Korean bastard who was in Team America, Kim Jong whatever. ~ Charlie Higson

Jesus, in fact, was typical of a certain kind of fanatical young idealist: at one moment holding forth, with tears in his eyes, about the need for universal love; at the next, furiously denouncing the morons, crooks and bigots who did not see eye to eye with him. It is very natural and very human behaviour. But it is not superhuman. ~ Margaret E. Knight

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus. ~ Margaret Thatcher

It makes it very hard to say what you believe in and not be attacked for it. And it's not fair; I'm Korean, but I'm not supposed to talk about my experience and my life? It's unaccepting. ~ Margaret Cho

Our willingness to acknowledge that we only see half the picture creates the conditions that make us more attractive to others. The more sincerely we acknowledge our need for their different insights and perspectives, the more they will be magnetized to join us. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

Maybe I wanted to hear it so badly that my ears betrayed my mind in order to secure my heart. ~ Margaret Cho

Time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee ... I hold inside it the clues and solutions and the power for what I must do now. ~ Margaret Atwood

But what is a memorial, when you come right down to it, but a commemoration of wounds endured? Endured, and resented. Without memory, there can be no revenge. ~ Margaret Atwood

I prayed to what all things hold in common. I prayed to what makes life. I thought about the elements of the universe, the rocks, the stars, the air, other living things. I tried to get the perspective of what's behind all that. I prayed to the force that brings things into existence. I thought this force encompassed all it created. My God was transcendent, and my God was also immanent. God ran in my veins. God lived and died and lived again in every atom of the universe. ~ Margaret D. McGee

Successful entrepreneurship is ultimately a matter of flair. But there is also a fund of practical knowledge to be acquired and, of course, the right legal and financial framework has to be provided for productive enterprise to develop. ~ Margaret Thatcher

People constantly requesting government intervention are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours. ~ Margaret Thatcher

You have to have a very holler-y sensibility. So they [the audience] know there's something worth listening to. ~ Margaret Cho

Her voice is thin and her moan is high,
And her cackling laugh or her barking cold
Bring terror to the young and old.
O Molly, Molly, Molly Means
Lean is the ghost of Molly Means. ~ Margaret Walker

You cannot hide from danger. Death floats on the air, creeps through the window, comes with the handshake of a stranger. If we stop living because we fear death, then we have already died.
-Raistlin Majere ~ Margaret Weis

I didn't want him to become gray and multi-dimensional and complicated like everyone else. Was every Heathcliff a Linton in disguise? ~ Margaret Atwood

The woman's mission is not to enhance the masculine spirit, but to express the feminine; hers is not to preserve a man-made world, but to create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element into all of its activities. ~ Margaret Thatcher

That's the girl, as Grandma Win would say. Put one foot on the first stair, then the other one beside it, like when you were three. You need to take care of yourself, because who else will? There. ~ Margaret Atwood

Some brains are barren grounds, that will not bring seed or fruit forth, unless they are well manured with the old wit which is raked from other writers and speakers. ~ Margaret Cavendish

...Not an elegant tapestry but a serviceable quilt. ~ Margaret Erhart

Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever. ~ Margaret Atwood

Preparations are good in life, prologues ruinous. ~ Margaret Fuller

When they're gone out of his head, these words, they'll be gone, everywhere, forever. As if they had never been. ~ Margaret Atwood

If the stock market exists, so must previous lives. ~ Margaret Atwood

A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country's flag. ~ Margaret Thatcher

I quite like eggs," I replied firmly, well aware that the enchantments he described would all turn strange and sour, even deadly, in the end. Besides, what on earth would I do with men's hearts? I couldn't make an omelette out of them. ~ Margaret Rogerson

Most people don't realize that since the time of Apollo we've been in a feedback loop: as a nation, we elect representatives who thwart NASA, and then we blame NASA for its lack of vision. ~ Margaret Lazarus Dean

No British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher. ~ Morrissey

Sam and Dean Winchester sitting on the top of the Impala sharing their feelings over a beer is a reward worth driving any 'Supernatural' demon away - but in real life, they'd have crippling co-dependency issues. ~ Margaret Stohl

I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off. ~ Margaret Atwood

And apologies, once postponed, become harder and harder to make, and finally impossible. ~ Margaret Mitchell

Again, the truth of the matter is we haven't paid that much attention to high school accountability. ~ Margaret Spellings

It is not only the body that travels, Adam One used to say, it is also the Soul. And the end of one journey is the beginning of another. ~ Margaret Atwood

Oh my god" Meg ranted. "Her water just broke!"
Margaret" Eve said, "get a grip - and a towel. I'll be there in five minutes."
(After her sister is off to the hospital and Meg comes close to hyperventalating)
Shouldn't we have called an ambulance or something?" Meg fretted.
Oh for heavens sakes," Eve replied. "You don't need an ambulance!"
Not for me, Mother for Sierra. ~ Linda Lael Miller

The Lowcountry traditionally is a logical place where the big ships stopped and brought new things in from the ocean, and the islands have a mystical tradition. It is such a visual place, too, with these iconic villages with the Spanish moss and the village and historical homes and the coast. ~ Margaret Stohl

As we celebrate the 100th birthday of Margaret Sanger, our outrageous and our courageous leader, we will probably find a number of areas in which we may find more about Margaret Sanger than we thought we wanted to know ... ~ Faye Wattleton

We each create our world by what we choose to notice, creating a world of distinction that makes sense to us. We then 'see' the world through the self we have created. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

If we make one criterion for defining the artist the impulse to make something new, or to do something in a new way - a kind of divine discontent with all that has gone before, however good - then we can find such artists at every level of human culture, even when performing acts of great simplicity. ~ Margaret Mead

Amazing how quickly the past becomes idyllic. ~ Margaret Atwood

I know that carrot is not the right word. I've
seen dragonflies and beetles, flying around, stuck together, one on the back of the other; I know it's
called mating. I know about ovipositors, for laying eggs, on leaves, on caterpillars, on the surface of the
water; they're right out on the page, clearly labeled, on the diagrams of insects my father corrects at
home. I know about queen ants, and about the female praying mantises eating the males. None of this is
much help. I think of Mr. and Mrs. Smeath, stark-naked, with Mr. Smeath stuck to the back of Mrs.
Smeath. Such an image, even without the addition of flight, will not do. ~ Margaret Atwood

I can kill with a single word. I can hurl a ball of fire into the midst of my enemies. I rule a squadron of skeletal warriors, who can destroy by touch alone. I can raise a wall of ice to protect those I serve. The invisible is discernible to my eyes. Ordinary magic spells crumble in my presence ... But I bow in the presence of a master.
Lord Soth to Raistlin Majere ~ Margaret Weis

You fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye ~ Margaret Atwood

Powerful but insecure men don't take well to rejection. Rage could result. ~ Margaret Atwood

War makes its own morals. ~ Margaret Bourke-White

The people who are unprejudiced, but who ... feel it is so hopeless there is no use trying ... probably do just as much damage to the emotional atmosphere in which we are facing the problem as the fanatical Negrophobes. ~ Margaret Halsey

Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit in? ~ Margaret Atwood

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on. ~ Margaret Atwood

Oh, torture. Is this purgatory, and if it is, why is it so much like the first grade? ~ Margaret Atwood

The written word is so much like evidence - like something that can be used against you later. ~ Margaret Atwood

A woman of faith is blessed by faithful men in her life who hold the priesthood of God and honor this privilege: her father, bishop, husband, brothers, sons. They value her and the divine gifts given by God to His daughter. They sustain and encourage, and they understand the great mission of her life as a woman. They love her; they bless her. ~ Margaret D. Nadauld

Stan got the message. He allowed the chicken assignations. What did that make him? A chicken pimp. Better than dead. ~ Margaret Atwood

The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual. ~ Margaret Mead

Power in organizations is the capacity generated by relationships. It is an energy that comes into existence through relationships. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

At a time of multiple calamities in the world, we cannot allow the loss of essential antimicrobials, essential cures for many millions of people, to become the next global crisis. ~ Margaret Chan

You bite off more than you can chew, 'course you're going to choke. One bite at a time. And that goes for thinking things, too, not just food. ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix

Socialists don't like ordinary people choosing, for they might not choose socialism. ~ Margaret Thatcher

The young habitually mistake lust for love, they're infested with idealism of all kinds. ~ Margaret Atwood

More than whimsy, joy is a weapon we use to fight life's battles. ~ Margaret Feinberg

Questions are the heart and soul of constructive conflict. They open up the exploration, bring in new information, and reframe debate. When ~ Margaret Heffernan

You can examine the whole 19th century from the point of view of who would have maxed out their credit cards. Emma Bovary would have maxed hers out. No question. Mr. Scrooge would not have. He would have snipped his up. ~ Margaret Atwood

When I stand on a street in a Canadian city and look across the street, it couldn't be anywhere but Canada, but how can I prove it? ~ Margaret Mead

She sat still, trying to hush her secret heart. ~ Margaret Landon

Women collect grievances, hold grudges and change shape. They pass hard, legitimate judgments, unlike the purblind guesses of men, fogged with romanticism and ignorance and bias and wish. Women know too much, they can neither be deceived nor trusted. I can understand why men are afraid of them, as they are frequently accused of being. ~ Margaret Atwood

What do you say to furthering our cousinly relationship by a drive in the Park this afternoon? ~ Margaret Westhaven

Talking to Rhett was comparable only to one thing, the feeling of ease and comfort afforded by a pair of old slippers after dancing in a pair too tight. ~ Margaret Mitchell

Alfred shook his balding head slowly, with quiet dignity. "You can't threaten me, Haplo. Sartan magic is different from Patryn magic, but it has the same roots and is just as powerful. I haven't used my magic as much as you've been forced by circumstances to use yours. But I am older than you. And you must concede that magic of any type is strengthened by age and by wisdom. ~ Margaret Weis

And who is this pretty lady you're talking to, Nora?" the second footman, Craig, asked, all eagerness. "Do introduce me." Margaret grinned first at Joan, then Craig. "Miss Joan Hurdle, may I present Craig . . . I'm afraid I don't know your last name." "Craig is my last name! But we already had a Thomas, didn't we?" "Oh. Well then, may I present Mr. Thomas Craig." "How do you do?" Joan dipped her head. "A great deal better now you're here. Say you'll save a dance for me, Miss Joan, and I shall do better yet." Joan smiled. "Very well. ~ Julie Klassen

Most of us will. We'll choose knowledge no matter what, we'll maim ourselves in the process, we'll stick our hands into the flames for it if necessary. Curiosity is not our only motive: love or grief or despair or hatred is what drives us on. We'll spy relentlessly on the dead: we'll open their letters, we'll read their journals, we'll go through their trash, hoping for a hint, a final word, an explanation, from those who have deserted us--who've left us holding the bag, which is often a good deal emptier than we'd supposed.

But what about those who plant such clues, for us to stumble on? Why do they bother? Egotism? Pity? Revenge? A simple claim to existence, like scribbling your initials on a washroom wall? The combination of presence and anonymity--confession without penance, truth without consequences--it has its attractions. Getting the blood off your hands, one way or another.

Those who leave such evidence can scarcely complain if strangers come along afterwards and poke their noses into every single thing that would once have been none of their business. And not only strangers: lovers, friends, relations. We're voyeurs, all of us. Why should we assume that anything in the past is ours for the taking, simply because we've found it? We're all grave robbers, once we open the doors locked by others.

But only locked. The rooms and their contents have been left intact. If those leaving them had wanted oblivion, there was always fire. ~ Margaret Atwood

If you are generous with your heart, you have no idea of the depth & breadth of love's reach. ~ Margaret Cho

This is the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the crowd by those rays of whose heat they complain. ~ Margaret Fuller

I've reached the age where anyone who lets me talk seems like an old By listening to my memories, you have become part of them. ~ Margaret Millar

The American family is failing in its job of turning out stable human beings ... It is failing because Americans do not dare to cultivate in themselves those characteristics which would make family life creative and rewarding. To do so, would ruin them financially. ~ Margaret Halsey

Time folds you in its arms and gives you one last kiss, and then it flattens you out and folds you up and tucks you away until it's time for you to become someone else's past time, and then time folds again. ~ Margaret Atwood

And then I thought: 'It's for a warning,'" she continues. "You may think a bed is a peaceful thing, sir. For you it may mean rest, and comfort, and a good night's sleep. But it isn't so for everyone. There are many dangerous things that may take place in a bed. It's where we are born, that's our first peril in life. It's where women give birth, which is often their last. And it's where the act takes place between men and women sir, which I will not mention to you, but I suppose you know what it is. Some call it love, others despair, merely an indignity they must suffer through. And finally beds are what we sleep in, and where we dream, and often where we die. ~ Margaret Atwood

She who pays the undertaker calls the tune. ~ Margaret Atwood

New ideas are created when they can be discussed freely, but if there is a CORRECT view then you cease to have new ideas ~ Margaret Thatcher

There is much to be said for trying to improve some disadvantaged people's lot. There is nothing to be said for trying to create heaven on earth. ~ Margaret Thatcher

Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women. We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying, and yet at the same time so dire, so extreme, so unlikely. God is love, they once said, but we reversed that, and love, like heaven, was always just around the corner. The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting, always, for the incarnation. That word, made flesh.
And sometimes it happened, for a time. That kind of love comes and goes and is hard to remember afterwards, like pain. You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done; and you would know too why your friends had been evasive about it, at the time.
There is a good deal of comfort, now, in remembering this. ~ Margaret Atwood

The darkness is really out there. It's not something that's in my head, just. It's in my work because it's in the world. ~ Margaret Atwood

Rooster, maybe well crows, but the eggs still bears the chicken. ~ Margaret Thatcher

The ochre-yellow linoleum floor hasn't been scrubbed for some time; splotches of dirt bloom on it like grey pressed flowers. ~ Margaret Atwood

For eons, humans have struggled to find less destructive ways of living together. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

Sometimes she couldn't tolerate a man's physical superiority. No wonder they were so damned macho. ~ Margaret Way

You say, Do you / love me, do you love me / I answer you: / I stretch your arms out / one to either side, / your head slumps forward. ~ Margaret Atwood