Margaret Thatcher
Role at time of quote: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
"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."
Context
Before — what was asked or happening
Thatcher gave an interview to Woman's Own magazine published on 1 October 1987, shortly after winning her third consecutive general election. The interviewer asked about the culture of dependency on government that Thatcher believed had developed in Britain. The full passage was part of a longer answer about personal responsibility, welfare dependency, and the relationship between individuals, families, and the state.
After — what followed or was clarified
Only the first sentence — 'There is no such thing as society' — was widely quoted, stripped entirely of the sentences that followed. Thatcher later addressed this directly in her 1993 autobiography The Downing Street Years, writing: 'They never quoted the rest. I went on to say: There are individual men and women, and there are families... My meaning, clear at the time but subsequently distorted beyond recognition, was that society was not an abstraction, separate from the men and women who composed it.' A 2013 Ipsos study found that 74% of people disagreed with the isolated quote, but 63% agreed when shown the full passage — a remarkable demonstration of how stripping context reverses public opinion.
Primary source Print / article
Publication: Woman's Own magazine
Read coverage
Read reporting from the outlet you trust most.
Topics
Added to End Of Quote: 8 May 2026