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

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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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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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... 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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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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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Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.
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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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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.
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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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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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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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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 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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Adjective salad is delicious, with each element contributing its individual and unique flavor but a puree of adjective soup tastes yecchy.
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A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.
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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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