War & Peace Quote by Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher turns a battlefield proverb into a lesson in leverage. "Know the enemy" isn’t presented as moral enlightenment; it’s a hard-headed investment strategy. The key phrase is "It pays": politics as balance sheet, intelligence as currency, outcomes as profit. That framing is pure Thatcher - the conviction that sentiment is noise and that power is best handled like a disciplined market.

The second half swivels the knife. "Not least because" signals that understanding an opponent is valuable for more than defense; it’s preparation for conversion. The enemy isn’t an eternal villain, but a future asset - if, and only if, the conditions are right. Thatcher is quietly describing the mechanics of coalition-building, diplomacy, and parliamentary survival: today’s adversary can become tomorrow’s voting partner, trading counterpart, or geopolitical necessity. In that light, the line reads less like peacemaking than like strategic appropriation.

Context matters because Thatcher governed in an era defined by entrenched antagonisms - unions vs. government, socialism vs. market liberalism, the Cold War’s ideological gridlock. Her reputation is often cast as combative, even absolutist, yet this quote reveals a colder pragmatism beneath the certainties. She isn’t asking you to empathize; she’s telling you to map incentives, pressures, and fears so precisely that you can alter someone’s alignment.

The subtext is bracing: friendship is not a revelation, it’s a negotiated outcome. Knowing the enemy is how you keep them from surprising you - and how you learn what it would cost to make them switch sides.