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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.

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
Forgotten
Smile
Lines
Language
Cheshire
Stories
Dangling
Like
Punch
Cat
Remain

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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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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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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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The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.
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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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You don't overturn a previous court's decisions lightly and I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion and there's not going to be a revolution here at all.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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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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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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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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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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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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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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