The World Loses a Great Leader in Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, died of a stroke Monday. She was responsible for a revival of conservative values during her term.

Thatcher also was a good friend of President Ronald Reagan. Her beautiful, heartfelt eulogy for him can be seen here. You can see in it her reverence for God as well as her affection for President Reagan.

Like Reagan, Thatcher won the hearts of many people with a charming mix of whit and wisdom. She promoted Christian, conservative values with the use of great, easily understood comments like her quotes below. They are worth repeating, especially amid the cacophony of leftist loons this week cheering her demise:

• “Do you think you would ever have heard of Christianity if the apostles had gone out and said, ‘I believe in consensus?’”

• “I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.”

• “Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.”

• “There is no such thing as Society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.”

• “We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.”

• “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.”

• “To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.”

• “Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.”

• “To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.”

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

• “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”

Thatcher also once told a socialist critic of hers during a debate in Parliament that “He would rather the poor were poorer, provided the rich were less rich.”

Margaret Thatcher was a tremendous champion of liberty. Her work with President Reagan and Pope John Paul II freed millions of people (including her own citizens in Great Britain) from socialist, communist tyranny and the economic malaise it invariably creates.

That fight is still going on today. May God provide us with a multitude of Margaret Thatchers!

David Outten is the production editor for Movieguide.