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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.

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
Humorous
Begins
Week
Winning
Funny
War
Bargaining
Cannot
Negotiating
America
Negotiation

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A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.
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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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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
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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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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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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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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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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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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
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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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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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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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Have a definite opinion.
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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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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
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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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Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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