"I find that the conservatism which I follow does have some things in common with what Professor Hayek was preaching and also has some things in common with what you called old-fashioned Liberals. Let me just quote one, to whom I am devoted, John Stuart Mill on liberty. “A nation that dwarfs its citizens will find that with small men it can accomplish no great thing.” Is that not what I have been saying? Yes, it is partly perhaps old-fashioned liberalism...my pride that it has something in common with that...but that also has something in common with my belief that really nations are there to try to help people to bring out the best talents and abilities and initiatives in themselves and that, I think, is conserving the best in human nature and trying to change the rest, but trying to change it through the character of men and women."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandBritish peersWomen academics from EnglandChemists from England
Original Language: English
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Radio Interview for BBC Radio 3 (17 December 1985)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
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