Lady Thatcher in quotes

Here is a selection of Margaret Thatcher's. What is the right way to complete the quotes?

  1. "To be / Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
  2.  "In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done / made, ask a woman."
  3. "Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow / to follow you."
  4. "I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end / at the end."
  5. "Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by / for the traffic from both sides."
  6. "If my critics would see / saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn't swim."
  7. "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument / discussion left."
  8. "If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time / everything at everytime, and you would achieve nothing."
  9. "To these / those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning."
  10. "They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as / like 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."


Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Graham;

Being;done;follow;at the end;by;saw;argument;everything at everytime;those;as

Cast their problems at society. What does it meaning exactly? It is to lay the blame on society by their problems, or they want the society solves their problems?
See You!
Hilde
Graham said…
Hilde,

Shall we wait to see if one of your classmates tries the exercise before I post the answers?

"cast their problems at society"

Is it to lay the blame on society for their problems, or do they want society to solve their problems?

"cast" is similar to throw,

so I think it is more the latter.

Here we have the quote in context:

"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is 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 to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."


Normally people quote her as saying "there is no such thing as society", which sounds cruel and uncaring.

However, if you put it into context, it sounds very different and IMO quite reasonable.