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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.

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
Beat
Decide
Beats
Nobody
Somebody
Winning
Truism
Politics
Truest
Political
Imperfect

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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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Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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To 'know your place' is a good idea in politics. That is not to say 'stay in your place' or 'hang on to your place', because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place - a feel for one's own position in the control room-is useful in gauging what you should try to do.
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I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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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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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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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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A man who lies, thinking it is the truth, is an honest man, and a man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, is a liar.
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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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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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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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Color and bite permeate a language designed to rally many men, to destroy some, and to change the minds of others.
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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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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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It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
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