Quote

Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.

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
Term
Exquisite
Word
Sensitivity
Need
Precise
Feel
Poetic
Sometimes
Tired
Flatters
Feels
Meaning
Readership
Needs
Especially
Nuance
Perhaps
Unfamiliar

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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.
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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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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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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
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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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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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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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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.
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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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Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
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Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.
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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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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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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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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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[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.
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