Loud Thinking

Archive for April, 2013

A beautiful piece written about the late great lady Margaret Thatcher (Link:- http://listverse.com/2007/12/21/top-25-quotes-of-margaret-thatcher/

When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, Britain was a dump, “the sick man of Europe” and on the brink of total economic collapse. When she left power in 1990, it was the one of the financial capitals of the world. She is associated with her political philosophy of Thatcherism, based on low taxation, low public spending, free markets and mass privatization. I, personally, love Margaret Thatcher for her honesty, bluntness, strength of character and her radicalism. Many others hate her, though, mainly on the left of politics who believed that she destroyed workers rights and slashed public spending. During her tenure she had to deal with mass unemployment, out of control inflation, endless strikes, a war with the Falklands and an attempted assassination by the IRA. In February 2007, she became the first British Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the House of Commons while still alive; a testament to her incredible legacy.

Few of her famous quotes:-

1. Pennies don’t fall from heaven – they have to be earned here on earth.

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

3. Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.

4. My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.

5. Defeat? I do not recognise the meaning of the word.

Best tribute to the late Margaret Thatcher

Few of her famous quotes

1) Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

2) If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

3) I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

4) To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

5) It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.

6) To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

7) I’ve got a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

8) 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.

9) 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 left.

10) There is no such thing as Society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.

11) If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.

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

13) 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.

14) You need quite good shock absorbers and a sense of humour to be the Prime Minister’s child.

15) “I don’t mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say.”

Few Gems of the great late Margaret Thatcher

I, personally, have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.

Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.

There’s no such thing as society.

A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag.

(to Conservative backbench MP John Whittingdale) The trouble with you, John, is that your spine does not reach your brain.

For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other’s good intentions.

Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.

If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.

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.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

It pays to know the enemy – not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.

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 left.

Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation.

Imagine a Labour canvasser talking on the doorstep to those East German families when they settle in on freedom’s side of the wall. “You want to keep more of the money you earn? I’m afraid that’s very selfish. We shall want to tax that away. You want to own shares in your firm? We can’t have that. The state has to own your firm. You want to choose where to send your children to school? That’s very divisive. You’ll send your child where we tell you.”

Bonus: I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime. – BBC interview, 1973

Link:- http://listverse.com/2007/12/21/top-25-quotes-of-margaret-thatcher/

Death Penalty…. As perceived by the late Margaret Thatcher

“I, personally, have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.”

Love is a feeling of warm personal attachment.

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

John Lennon (1940-1980);
musician, founding member of the Beatles

BBC Urdu has asked a question that should General (R) Musharraf be given power again?
My reply to the above question is a s below:-

@BBC Urdu, may we ask you that would you like Gen. Cromwell (whose bones of the dead body were hanged on a crossing in London) to take over UK and rule again?

Choose the Right Chart for Your Slide
When displaying data in a presentation, clarity matters above all else. Your audience has to get meaning from your numbers before you click away. This means you need to pick the right chart for the job. The most common charts in business are pies, bars, matrixes, and line graphs, which will serve different purposes depending on the data:

Use a line graph instead of a bar chart if the shape of the line will draw attention to your most important point.

Use a matrix instead of multiple pie charts if you want to show relationships between the data points.

Call out a number. Sometimes the best chart is no chart at all. If a certain figure conveys your key message most clearly on its own, show just that number — huge — on the slide.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations.

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.
Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.
Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps
different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any
action is better than no action at all.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

Drive is to strive vigorously toward a goal or objective.