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

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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'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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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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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.
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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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Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
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You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
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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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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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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.
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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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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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