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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.

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
Drama
Conflict
Lexicon
Politics
Pleading
Language
Reproach
Persuasion
Ridicule
Changing
Constantly

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Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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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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[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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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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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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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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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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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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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 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.
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This is what it's all about. From what I could see, you could get a bunch of people together, whip up the press and have some impact.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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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.
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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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I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
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