Quote

The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.

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
Ridicule
Changing
Constantly
Drama
Conflict
Lexicon
Politics
Pleading
Language
Reproach
Persuasion

More quotes by William Safire

Image
Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.
William Safire
Image
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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
You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
William Safire
Image
Never assume the obvious is true.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
William Safire
Image
Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.
William Safire
Image
I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
William Safire
Image
Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
Image
The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise . . .
William Safire
Image
Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
William Safire
Image
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.
William Safire
Image
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire
Image
It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
William Safire
Image
It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.
William Safire
Image
... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.
William Safire
Image
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.
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