1. "I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime." -- as education secretary on March 5, 1973 (six years before ascending to PM's office).
2. "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
3. "I make up my mind about people in the first 10 seconds, and I very rarely change it." -- years before she became Prime Minister on May 4, 1979.
4. "The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land." - 1987
5. "In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman."
6. "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
7. "I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end."
8. "The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns." - Speech, Jan. 19, 1976
9. "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
10. "If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage."