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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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This is what it's all about. From what I could see, you could get a bunch of people together, whip up the press and have some impact.
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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.
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One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken.
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I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
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To be accused of 'channeling' is to be dismissed as a ventriloquist's live dummy, derogated at not having a mind of one's own.
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Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.
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Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
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Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.
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