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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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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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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
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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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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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In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.'
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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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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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Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.
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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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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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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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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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A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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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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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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