Quote

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.

William Safire

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Time
Stuck
Like
Supreme
Court
York
Wonderful
Columnist
Times
Columnists
Thing
Appointment
Long
Appointments

More quotes by William Safire

Image
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.
William Safire
Image
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.'
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
Don't expect others to do your work for you.
William Safire
Image
Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
William Safire
Image
Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
William Safire
Image
The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
William Safire
Image
Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
William Safire
Image
Never assume the obvious is true.
William Safire
Image
At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
William Safire
Image
It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
William Safire
Image
Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
[Senators John Kerry & John Edwards] have risen high in Democratic polls with a brand of class resentment and soak-the-rich rhetoric rooted in the old-fashioned liberalism of Ted Kennedy.
William Safire
Image
George Washington had a tough second term.
William Safire
Image
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
William Safire
Image
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
Image
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire