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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

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
Mean
Ethics
Something
Honesty
Integrity
Honor
Liberty
Doe
Character
Accountability
Right
Libertarian

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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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In dealing with Syria's dictator...only force counts. No cease-fire was attainable in Lebanon until the 16-inch guns of the battleship New Jersey started shelling Syria's proxies suddenly, sweet reason prevailed in Damascus.
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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.
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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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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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... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.
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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
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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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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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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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The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise . . .
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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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You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
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The tension between the governed and the governing is what makes the world go 'round. It's not love, it's that tension, because that tension exists in love affairs. The whole idea of control is at the heart of human relationships. Control and resistance to control.
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Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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