Quote

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
Beats
Nobody
Somebody
Winning
Truism
Politics
Truest
Political
Imperfect
Beat
Decide

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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
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One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken.
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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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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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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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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
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Have a definite opinion.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
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To be accused of 'channeling' is to be dismissed as a ventriloquist's live dummy, derogated at not having a mind of one's own.
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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 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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