I only met Margaret Thatcher twice. The thing that I thought about meeting her was how extraordinarily intelligent she was. You really had to be on your game otherwise she'd make mincemeat of you.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the intelligence and formidable presence of Margaret Thatcher, emphasizing the need for preparedness when engaging with strong leaders.
Salman Rushdie's quote reveals his impression of Margaret Thatcher as an extraordinarily intelligent individual who commanded respect and demanded high levels of performance from those around her. Meeting her left an impression not only of her intellect but also of her ability to engage in discussions where one needed to be well-prepared, or else risk being overshadowed in conversation. This serves as a testament to her leadership qualities and the bar she set for intellectual rigor.
In practice
During a leadership seminar, one might reference Rushdie's quote to emphasize the importance of preparation in discussions with influential leaders.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.
This assumption of Negro leadership in the ghetto, then, must not be confined to matters of religion, education, and social uplift; it must deal with such fundamental forces in life as make these things possible.
A good jockey doesn't need orders and a bad jockey couldn't carry them out anyway; so it's best not to give them any.
A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication.
I make no apologies for being reasonable.
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