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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.

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
Higher
Leader
Causes
Values
Strategy
Value
Cause

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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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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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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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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.
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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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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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Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
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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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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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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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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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When your government, employer, landlord, merchant, banker and local sports team gang up to picture, digitize and permanently record your every activity, you are placed under unprecedented control.
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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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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: To hell with you. Offensive letter follows.
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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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