Quote

A man who lies, thinking it is the truth, is an honest man, and a man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, is a liar.

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
Lies
Honest
Lying
Truth
Liar
Believe
Men
Liars
Thinking
Believing
Tells

More quotes by 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
[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
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
Image
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.
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 Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
William Safire
Image
I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
William Safire
Image
The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
William Safire
Image
I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
William Safire
Image
When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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
If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
William Safire
Image
Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
William Safire
Image
When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
William Safire
Image
Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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
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.
William Safire
Image
No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
William Safire
Image
Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
Image
After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.
William Safire