Quote

Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.

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
Words
Passive
Form
Carefully
Remember
Sentence
Used
Statements
Never
Sentences
Negative
Infinitive
Start
Split
Voice
Splits

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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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The wonderful thing about being a New York Times columnist is that it's like a Supreme Court appointment - they're stuck with you for a long time.
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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
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The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
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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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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.
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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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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.
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The Latin motto over Poindexter's new Pentagon office reads Scientia Est Potentia - knowledge is power. Exactly: the government's infinite knowledge about you is its power over you.
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Have a definite opinion.
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One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.
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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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It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.
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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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